IRLF 


CHAINING 


SLAVERY 


University  of  California. 

FROM    THK    UUKAkY    <>F 

DR.     FRANCIS     LIEI'.KR. 
Professor  of  History  r<ml  Law  in  Columbia  College,  Now  York. 


THK  oii-T  or 


MICHAEL     REESE 

Of  San  Fraiicisci^. 


SLAVERY 


BY 


WILLIAM  E.    CHANNING 


FOURTH   EDITION. 


REVISED, 


BOSTON: 
JAMES   MUNROE    ANDCOMPANY. 


M  DCCC  XXXVI. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1835,  by 

JAMES  MUNROE  AND  COMPANY, 
in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  district  court  of  Massachusetts. 


STEREOTYPED  BY  SHEPARD,  OLIVER,  AND  CO. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION 1 

CHAPTER   I. 
Property 13 

CHAPTE  R     II. 
Rights      31 

.CHAPTE  R     III. 
Explanations 56 

CHAPTER     IV. 
The  Evils  of  Slavery 65 

CHAPTER     V. 
Scripture 119 

C  HAP  TER     VI. 
Means  of  Removing  Slavery 128 

CHAPTER     VII. 
Abolitionism 149 

CHAPTER    VIII. 
Duties 169 

NOTR .181 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  first  question  to  be  proposed  by  a  ra 
tional  being  is,  not  what  is  profitable,  but  what 
is  Right.  Duty  must  be  primary,  prominent, 
most  conspicuous,  among  the  objects  of  human 
thought  and  pursuit.  If  we  cast  it  down  from 
its  supremacy,  if  we  inquire  first  for  our  inter 
ests,  and  then  for  our  duties,  we  shall  certainly 
err.  We  can  never  see  the  right  clearly  and 
fully,  but  by  making  it  our  first  concern.  Noi 
judgment  can  be  just  or  wise,  but  that  which] 
is  built  on  the  conviction  of  the  paramount1 
worth  and  importance  of  duty.  This  is  the 
fundamental  truth,  the  supreme  law  of  reason  } 
and  the  mind  which  does  not  start  from  this, 
in  its  inquiries  into  human  affairs  is  doomed 
to  great,  perhaps  fatal  error. 

The  right  is  the  supreme  good,  and  includes 
all  other  goods.  In  seeking  and  adhering  to 
it,  we  secure  our  true  and  only  happiness. 
All  prosperity,  not  founded  on  it,  is  built  on 
sand.  If  human  affairs  are  controlled,  as  we 
1 


£  INTRODUCTION. 

believe,  by  Almighty  Rectitude  and  Impartial 
Goodness,  then  to  hope  for  happiness  from 
wrong-doing  is  as  insane  .as  to. seek  health  and 
prosperity  by  rebelling  against  the  laws  of  na 
ture,  by  sowing  our  seed  on  the  ocean,  or  mak 
ing  poison  our  common  food.  There  is  but  one 
unfailing  good;  and  that  is,  fidelity  to  the 
Everlasting  Law  written  on  the  heart,  and  re 
written  and  republished  in  God's  Word. 

Whoever  places  this  faith  in  the  everlasting 
law  of  rectitude  must,  of  course,  regard  the 
question  of  slavery  first  and  chiefly  as  a  moral 
question.  All  other  considerations  will  weigh 
little  with  him,  compared  with  its  moral  char 
acter  and  moral  influences.  The  following  re 
marks,  therefore,  are  designed  to  aid  the  reader 
in  forming  a  just  moral  judgment  of  slavery. 
Great  truths,  inalienable  rights,  everlasting 
duties,  these  will  form  the  chief  subjects  of  this 
discussion.  There  are  times  when  the  assertion 
of  great  principles  is  the  best  service  a  man 
can  render  society.  The  present  is  a  moment 
of  bewildering  excitement,  when  men's  minds 
are  stormed  and  darkened  by  strong  passions 
and  fierce  conflicts ;  and  also  a  moment  of  ab 
sorbing  worldliness,  when  the  moral  law  is 
made  to  bow  to  expediency,  and  its  high  and 
strict  requirements  are  denied,  or  dismissed  as 
metaphysical  abstractions  or  impracticable  the 
ories.  At  such  a  season,  to  utter  great  princi- 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

pies  without  passion,  and  in  the  spirit  of  un 
feigned  and  universal  good- will,  and  to  engrave 
them  deeply  and  durably  on  men's  minds,  is  to 
do  more  for  the  world,  than  to  open  mines  of 
wealth,  or  to  frame  the  most  successful  schemes 
of  policy. 

Of  late  our  country  has  been  convulsed  by 
the  question  of  slavery ;  and  the  people,  in  pro 
portion  as  they  have  felt  vehemently,  have 
thought  superficially,  or  hardly  thought  at  all ; 
and  we  see  the  results  in  a  singular  want  of 
well  defined  principles,  in  a  strange  vagueness 
and  inconsistency  of  opinion,  and  in  the  prone- 
ness  to  excess  which  belongs  to  unsettled  minds. 
The  multitude  have  been  called,  now  to  con 
template  the  horrors  of  slavery,  and  now  to 
shudder  at  the  ruin  and  bloodshed  which  must 
follow  emancipation.  The  word  Massacre  has 
resounded  through  the  land,  striking  terror  into 
strong  as  well  as  tender  hearts,  and  awakening 
indignation  against  whatever  may  seem  to 
threaten  such  a  consummation.  The  conse 
quence  is,  that  not  a  few  dread  all  discussion 
of  the  subject,  and,  if  not  reconciled  to  the  con 
tinuance  of  slavery,  at  least  believe  that  they 
have  no  duty  to  perform,  no  testimony  to  bear, 
no  influence  to  exert,  no  sentiments  to  cherish 
and  spread,  in  relation  to  this  evil.  What  is 
still  worse,  opinions  either  favoring  or  extenu 
ating  it  are  heard  with  little  or  no  disapproba- 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

tion.  Concessions  are  made  to  it  which  would 
once  have  shocked  the  community ;  whilst  to 
assail  it  is  pronounced  unwise  and  perilous. 
No  stronger  reason  for  a  calm  exposition  of  its 
true  character  can  be  given,  than  fhis  very 
state  of  the  public  mind.  A  community  can 
suffer  no  greater  calamity  than  the  loss  of  its 
principles.  Lofty  and  pure  sentiment  is  the 
life  and  hope  of  a  people.  There  was  never 
such  an  obligation  to  discuss  slavery  as  at  this 
moment,  when  recent  events  have  done  much 
to  unsettle  and  obscure  men's  minds  in  regard 
to  it.  This  result  is  to  be  ascribed  in  part 
to  the  injudicious  vehemence  of  those  who 
have  taken  into  their  hands  the  cause  of  the 
slave.  Such  ought  to  remember  that  to  espouse 
a  good  cause  is  not  enough.  We  must  maintain 
it  in  a  spirit  answering  to  its  dignity.  Let  no 
man  touch  the  great  interests  of  humanity,  who 
doe's  not  strive  to  sanctify  himself  for  the  work 
by  cleansing  his  heart  of  all  wrath  and  unchar- 
itableness,  who  cannot  hope  that  he  is  in  a 
measure  baptized  into  the  spirit  of  universal 
love.  Even  sympathy  with  the  injured  and 
oppressed  may  do  harm,  by  being  partial,  ex 
clusive,  and  bitterly  indignant.  How  far  the 
declension  of  the  spirit  of  freedom  is  to  be  as 
cribed  to  the  cause  now  suggested,  I  do  not  say. 
The  effect  is  plain,  and  whoever  sees  and  la 
ments  the  evil  should  strive  to  arrest  it. 


INTRODUCTION.  6 

S 

Slavery  ought  to  be  discussed.  We  ought 
to  think,  feel,  speak,  and  write  about  it.  But 
whatever  we  do  in  regard  to  it  should  be 
done  with  a  deep  feeling  of  responsibility,  and 
so  done  as  not  to  put  in  jeopardy  the  peace  of 
the  Slave-holding  States.  On  this  point  public 
opinion  has  not  been  and  cannot  be  too  strongly 
pronounced.  Slavery,  indeed,  from  its  very 
nature,  must  be  a  ground  of  alarm  wherever  it 
exists.  Slavery  and  security  can  by  no  device 
be  joined  together.  But  we  may  not,  must 
not,  by  rashness  and  passion  increase  the 
peril.  To  instigate  the  slave  to  insurrection  is 
a  crime  for  which  no  rebuke  and  no  punish 
ment  can  be  too  severe.  This  would  be  to  in 
volve  slave  and  master  in  common  ruin.  It  is 
not  enough  to  say  that  the  Constitution  is  vio 
lated  by  any  action  endangering  the  slave-hold 
ing  portion  of  our  country.  A  higher  law  than 
the  Constitution  forbids  this  unholy  interference. 
Were  our  national  union  dissolved,  we  ought 
to  reprobate,  as  sternly  as  we  now  do,  the 
slightest  manifestation  of  a  disposition  to  stir 
up  a  servile  war.  Still  more,  were  the  Free  and 
the  Slave-holding  States  not  only  separated,  but 
engaged  in  the  fiercest  hostilities,  the  former 
would  deserve  the  abhorrence  of  the  world  and 
the  indignation  of  Heaven,  were  they  to  resort 
to  insurrection  and  massacre  as  means  of  vic 
tory.  Better  were  it  for  us  to  bare  our  own 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

breasts  to  the  knife  of  the  slave,  than  to  arm 
him  with  it  against  his  master. 

It  is  not  by  personal,  direct  action  on  the 
mind  of  the  slave  that  we  can  do  him  good. 
Our  concern  is  with  the  free.  With  the  free  we 
are  to  plead  his  cause.  And  this  is  peculiarly 
our  duty,  because  we  have  bound  ourselves  to 
resist  his  own  efforts  for  his  emancipation.  We 
suffer  him  to  do  nothing  for  himself.  The 
more,  then,  should  be  done  for  him.  Our  phy 
sical  power  is  pledged  against  him  in  case  of 
revolt.  Then  our  moral  power  should  be  ex 
erted  for  his  relief.  His  weakness,  which  we 
increase,  gives  him  a  claim  to  the  only  aid  we 
can  afford,  to  our  moral  sympathy,  to  the  free 
and  faithful  exposition  of  his  wrongs.  As  men, 
as  Christians,  as  citizens,  we  have  duties  to  the 
slave,  as  well  as  to  every  other  member  of  the 
community.  On  this  point  we  have  no  liberty. 
The  eternal  law  binds  us  to  take  the  side  of  the 
injured ;  and  this  law  is  peculiarly  obligatory 
when  we  forbid  him  to  lift  an  arm  in  his  own 
defence. 

Let  it  not  be  said  we  can  do  nothing  for  the 
slave.  We  can  do  much.  We  have  a  power 
mightier  than  armies,  the  power  of  truth,  of 
principle,  of  virtue,  of  right,  of  religion,  cf  love. 
We  have  a  power,  which  is  growing  with  every 
advance  of  civilization,  before  which  the  slave- 
trade  has  fallen,  which  is  mitigating  the  stern- 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

est  despotisms,  which  is  spreading  education 
through  all  ranks  of  society,  which  is  bearing 
Christianity  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  which 
carries  in  itself  the  pledge  of  destruction  to 
every  institution  which  debases  humanity. 
Who  can  measure  the  power  of  Christian 
philanthropy,  of  enlightened  goodness,  pouring 
itself  forth  in  prayers  and  persuasions,  from 
the  press  and  pulpit,  from  the  lips  and  hearts 
of  devoted  men,  and  more  and  more  binding 
together  the  wise  and  good  in  the  cause  of  their 
race  ?  All  other  powers  may  fail.  This  must 
triumph.  It  is  leagued  with  God's  omnipo 
tence.  It  is  God  himself  acting  in  the  hearts 
of  his  children.  It  has  an  ally  in  every  con 
science,  in  every  human  breast,  in  the  wrong 
doer  himself.  This  spirit  has  but  begun  its 
work  on  earth.  It  is  breathing  itself  more  and 
more  through  literature,  education,  institutions, 
and  opinion.  Slavery  cannot  stand  before  it. 
Great  moral  principles,  pure  and  generous  sen 
timents,  cannot  be  confined  to  this  or  that  spot. 
They  cannot  be  shut  out  by  territorial  lines,  or 
local  legislation.  They  are  divine  inspirations, 
and  partake  of  the  omnipresence  of  their  Au 
thor.  The  deliberate,  solemn  conviction  of 
good  men  through  the  world,  that  slavery  is  a 
grievous  wrong  to  human  nature,  will  make 
itself  felt.  To  increase  this  moral  power  is 
every  man's  duty.  To  embody  and  express 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

this  great  truth  is  in  every  man's  power;  and 
thus  every  man  can  do  something  to  break  the 
chain  of  the  slave. 

There  are  not  a  few  persons,  who,  from  vul 
gar  modes  of  thinking,  cannot  be  interested  in 
this  subject.  Because  the  slave  is  a  degraded 
being,  they  think  slavery  a  low  topic,  and 
wonder  how  it  can  excite  the  attention  and 
sympathy  of  those  who  can  discuss  or  feel  for 
any  thing  else.  Now  the  truth  is,  that  slavery, 
regarded  only  in  a  philosophical  light,  is  a 
theme  worthy  of  the  highest  minds.  It  involves 
the  gravest  questions  about  human  nature  and 
society.  It  carries  us  into  the  problems  which 
have  exercised  for  ages  the  highest  understand 
ings.  It  calls  us  to  inquire  into  the  foundation, 
nature,  and  extent  of  human  rights,  into  the 
distinction  between  a  person  and  a  thing,  into 
the  true  relations  of  man  to  man,  into  the 
obligations  of  the  community  to  each  of  its 
members,  into  the  ground  and  laws  of  property, 
and,  above  all,  into  the  true  dignity  and  inde 
structible  claims  of  a  moral  being.  I  venture 
to  say,  there  is  no  subject,  now  agitated  by 
the  community,  which  can  compare  in  philo 
sophical  dignity  with  slavery;  and  yet  to 
multitudes  the  question  falls  under  the  same 
contempt  with  the  slave  himself.  To  many,  a 
writer  seems  to  lower  himself  who  touches  it. 
The  falsely  refined,  who  Want  intellectual 


INTRODUCTION.  VJ 

force  to  grasp  it,  pronounce  it  unworthy  of 
their  notice. 

But  this  subject  has  more  than  philosophical 
dignity.     It  has  an  important  bearing  on  char 
acter.     Our  interest  in  it  is  one  test  by  which 
our  comprehension  of  the  distinctive  spirit  of 
Christianity   must  be  judged.     Christianity  is 
the  manifestation  and  inculcation  of  Universal 
Love.     The  great  teaching  of  Christianity  is, 
that   we   must   recognise   and   respect  human 
nature  in  all  its   forms,    in  the  poorest,    most 
ignorant,  most  fallen.     We  must  look  beneath 
"the   flesh,"    to    "the   spirit."     The   spiritual 
principle  in  man  is  what  entitles  him  to  our 
brotherly   regard.     To   be  just  to   this  is   the 
great    injunction   of   our   religion.      To   over 
look  this,  on  account  of  condition  or  color,  is  to 
violate  the  great  Christian  law.     We  have  rea 
son  to  think  that  it  is  one  design  of  God,  in  ap 
pointing  the  vast  diversities  of  human  condi 
tion,  to  put  to  the  test,  and  to  bring  out  most 
distinctly,  the  principle  of  spiritual  love.     It  is 
wisely  ordered  that  human  nature  is  not  set 
before  us  in  a  few  forms  of  beauty,  magnifi 
cence,  and  outward  glory.     To  be  dazzled  and 
attracted  by  these  would  be  no  sign  of  reve 
rence   for   what   is   interior   and    spiritual    in 
human  nature.     To  lead  us  to  discern  and  love 
this,  we  are  brought  into  connection  with  fel 
low-creatures    whose    outward   circumstances 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

are  repulsive.  To  recognise  our  own  spiritual 
nature  and  God's  image  in  these  humble  forms, 
to  recognise  as  brethren  those  who  want  all 
outward  distinctions,  is  the  chief  way  in  which 
we  are  to  manifest  the  spirit  of  Him  who  came 
to  raise  the  fallen  and  to  save  the  lost.  We 
see,  then,  the  moral  importance  of  the  question 
of  slavery.  According  to  our  decision  of  it,  we 
determine  our  comprehension  of  the  Christian 
law.  He,  who  cannot  see  a  brother,  a  child  of 
God,  a  man  possessing  all  the  rights  of  human 
ity,  under  a  skin  darker  than  his  own,  wants 
the  vision  of  a  Christian.  He  worships  the 
Outward.  The  Spirit  is  not  yet  revealed  to  him. 
To  look  unmoved  on  the  degradation  and 
wrongs  of  a  fellow-creature,  because  burned  by 
a  fiercer  sun,  proves  us  strangers  to  justice  and 
love,  in  those  universal  forms  which  character 
ize  Christianity.  The  greatest  of  all  distinc 
tions,  the  only  enduring  one,  is  moral  goodness, 
virtue,  religion.  Outward  distinctions  cannot 
add  to  the  dignity  of  this.  The  wealth  of 
worlds  is  "  not  sufficient  for  a  burnt-offering" 
on  its  altar.  A  being  capable  of  this  is  invested 
by  God  with  solemn  claims  on  his  fellow-crea 
tures.  To  exclude  millions  of  such  beings 
from  our  sympathy,  because  of  outward  disad 
vantages,  proves,  that,  in  whatever  else  we 
surpass  them,  we  are  not  their  superiors  in 
Christian  virtue. 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

The  spirit  of  Christianity,  I  have  said,  is 
distinguished  by  Universality.  It  is  universal 
justice.  It  respects  all  the  rights  of  all  beings. 
It  suffers  no  being,  however  obscure,  to  be 
wronged,  without  condemning  the  wrong-doer. 
Impartial,  uncompromising,  fearless,  it  screens 
no  favorites,  is  dazzled  by  no  power,  spreads 
its  shield  over  the  weakest,  summons  the  might 
iest  to  its  bar,  and  speaks  to  the  conscience  in 
tones  under  which  the  mightiest  have  quailed. 
It  is  also  universal  love,  comprehending  those 
that  are  near  and  those  that  are  far  off,  the 
high  and  the  low,  the  rich  and  poor,  descend 
ing  to  the  fallen,  and  especially  binding  itself  to 
those  in  whom  human  nature  is  trampled  under 
foot.  Such  is  the  spirit  of  Christianity ;  and 
nothing  but  the  illumination  of  this  spirit  can 
prepare  us  to  pass  judgment  on  slavery. 

These  remarks  are  intended  to  show  the 
spirit  in  which  slavery  ought  to  be  approached, 
and  the  point  of  view  from  which  it  will  be 
regarded  in  the  present  discussion.  My  plan 
may  be  briefly  sketched. 

1.  I  shall   show  that  man  cannot  be  justly 
held  and  used  as  Property. 

2.  I  shall  show  that  man  has  sacred  rights, 
the  gifts  of  God,  and  inseparable  from  human 
nature,  of  which  slavery  is  the  infraction. 

3.  I  shall  offer  some  explanations,  to  prevent 
misapplication  of  these  principles. 


12 


INTRODUCTION. 


4.  I  shall  unfold  the  evils  of  slavery. 

5.  I  shall  consider  the  argument  which  the 
Scriptures  are  thought  to  furnish  in  favor  of 
slavery. 

6.  I  shall  offer  some  remarks  on  the  means 
of  removing  it. 

7.  I  shall  offer  some  remarks  on  abolitionism. 

8.  I  shall  conclude  with  a  few  reflections  on 
the  duties  belonging  to  the  times. 

In  the  first  two  sections  I  propose  to  show 
that  slavery  is  a  great  wrong,  but  I  do  not 
intend  to  pass  sentence  on  the  character  of  the 
slave-holder.  These  two  subjects  are  distinct. 
Men  are  not  always  to  be  interpreted  by  their 
acts  or  institutions.  The  same  acts  in  different 
circumstances  admit  and  even  require  very 
different  constructions.  I  offer  this  remark  that 
the  subject  may  be  approached  without  preju 
dice  or  personal  reference.  The  single  object 
is  to  settle  great  principles.  Their  bearing  on 
individuals  will  be  a  subject  of  distinct  con 
sideration. 


CHAPTER    I. 


PROPERTY. 

THE  slave-holder  claims  the  slave  as  his  Pro 
perty.  The  very  idea  of  a  slave  is,  that  he 
belongs  to  another,  that  he  is  bound  to  live  and 
labor  for  another,  to  be  another's  instrument, 
and  to  make  another's  will  his  habitual  law,  * 
however  adverse  to  his  own.  Another  owns 
him,  and,  of  course,  has  a  right  to  his  time  and 
strength,  a  right  to  the  fruits  of  his  labor,  a 
right  to  task  him  without  his  consent  and  to 
determine  the  kind  and  duration  of  his  toil,  a 
right  to  confine  him  to  any  bounds,  a  right  to 
extort  the  required  work  by  stripes,  a  right,  in 
a  word,  to  use  him  as  a  tool,  without  contract, 
against  his  will,  and  in  denial  of  his  right  to 
dispose  of  himself  or  to  use  his  power  for  his 
own  good.  "  A  slave,"  says  the  Louisiana 
code,  "is  in  the  power  of  the  master  to  whom 
he  belongs.  The  master  may  sell  him,  dispose 
of  his  person,  his  industry,  his  labor ;  he  can 
do  nothing,  possess  nothing,  nor  acquire  any 


14  PROPERTY. 

thing,  but  which  must  belong  to  his  master." 
"Slaves  shall  be  deemed,  taken,  reputed,  and 
adjudged,"  say  the  South-Carolina  laws,  "to 
be  chattels  personal  in  the  hands  of  their  mas 
ters,  and  possessions  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
whatsoever."  Such  is  slavery,  a  claim  to  man 
as  property. 

Now  this  claim  of  property  in  a  human 
being  is  altogether  false,  groundless.  No  such 
right  of  man  in  man  can  exist.  A  human  be 
ing  cannot  be  justly  owned.  To  hold  and  treat 
him  as  property  is  to  inflict  a  great  wrong,  to 
incur  the  guilt  of  oppression. 

This  position  there  is  a  difficulty  in  main 
taining  on  account  of  its  exceeding  obvious 
ness.  It  is  too  plain  for  proof.  To  defend  it  is 
like  trying  to  confirm  a  self-evident  truth.  To 
find  arguments  is  not  easy,  because  an  argu 
ment  is  something  clearer  than  the  proposition 
to  be  sustained.  The  man  who,  on  hearing 
the  claim  to  property  in  man,  does  not  see  and 
feel  distinctly  that  it  is  a  cruel  usurpation,  is 
hardly  to  be  reached  by  reasoning,  for  it  is 
hard  to  find  any  plainer  principles  than  what 
he  begins  with  denying.  I  will  endeavour, 
however,  to  illustrate  the  truth  which  I  have 
stated. 

1.  It  is  plain,  that,  if  one  man  may  be  held 
as  property,  then  every  other  man  may  be  so 


PROPERTY.  15 

held.  If  there  be  nothing  in  human  nature,  in 
our  common  nature,  which  excludes  and  for 
bids  the  conversion  of  him  who  possesses  it 
into  an  article  of  property ;  if  the  right  of  the 
free  to  liberty  is  founded,  not  on  their  essential 
attributes  as  rational  and  moral  beings,  but  on 
certain  adventitious,  accidental  circumstances, 
into  which  they  have  been  thrown ;  then  every 
human  being,  by  a  change  of  circumstances, 
may  justly  be  held  and  treated  by  another  as 
property.  If  one  man  may  be  rightfully  re 
duced  to  slavery,  then  there  is  not  a  human 
being  on  whom  the  same  chain  may  not  be  im 
posed.  Now  let  every  reader  ask  himself  this 
plain  question:  Could  I,  can  I,  be  rightfully 
seized,  and  made  an  article  of  property;  be 
made  a  passive  instrument  of  another's  will 
and  pleasure;  be  subjected  to  another's  irre 
sponsible  power ;  be  subjected  to  stripes  at  an 
other's  will;  he  denied  the  control  and  use  of 
my  own  limbs  and  faculties  for  my  own  good? 
Does  any  man,  so  questioned,  doubt,  waver, 
look  about  him  for  an  answer?  Is  not  the  reply 
given  immediately,  intuitively,  by  his  whole 
inward  being  ?  Does  not  an  unhesitating,  un 
erring  conviction  spring  up  in  my  breast,  that 
no  other  man  can  acquire  such  a  right  in  my 
self?  Do  we  not  repel  indignantly  and  with 
horror  the  thought  of  being  reduced  to  the  con 
dition  of  tools  and  chattels  to  a  fellow-creature? 


16  PROPERTY. 

Is  there  any  moral  truth  more  deeply  rooted  in 
us,  than  that  such  a  degradation  would  be  an 
infinite  wrong?  And  if  this  impression  be  a 
delusion,  on  what  single  moral  conviction  can 
we  rely  ?  This  deep  assurance,  that  we  cannot 
be  rightfully  made  another's  property,  does  not 
rest  on  the  hue  of  our  skins,  or  the  place  of  our 
birth,  or  our  strength,  or  wealth.  These  things 
do  not  enter  our  thoughts.  The  consciousness 
of  indestructible  rights  is  a  part  of  our  moral 
being.  The  consciousness  of  our  humanity 
involves  the  persuasion  that  we  cannot  be 
owned  as  a  tree  or  a  brute.  As  men  we 
cannot  justly  be  made  slaves.  Then  no  man 
can  be  rightfully  enslaved.  In  casting  the 
yoke  from  ourselves  as  an  unspeakable  wrong, 
we  condemn  ourselves  as  wrong-doers  and 
oppressors  in  laying  it  on  any  who  share 
our  nature. — It  is  not  necessary  to  inquire 
whether  a  man,  by  extreme  guilt,  may  not 
forfeit  the  rights  of  his  nature,  and  be  justly 
punished  with  slavery.  On  this  point  crude 
notions  prevail.  But  the  discussion  would  be 
foreign  to  the  present  subject.  We  are  now  not 
speaking  of  criminals.  We  speak  of  innocent 
men,  who  have  given  us  no  hold  on  them  by 
guilt ;  and  our  own  consciousness  is  a  proof 
that  such  cannot  rightfully  be  seized  as  property 
by  a  fellow-creature. 


PROPERTY.  17 

2.  A  man  cannot  be  seized  and  held  as  pro 
perty,   because  he  has    Rights.     What   these 
rights  are,  whether  few  or  many,  or  whether 
all  men  have  the  same,  are  questions  for  future 
discussion.     All  that  is  assumed  now  is,  that 
every  human  being  has  some  rights.    This  truth 
cannot  be  denied,  but  by  denying  to  a  portion 
of  the  race  that  moral  nature  which  is  the  sure 
and  only  foundation  of  rights.     This  truth  has 
never,  I  believe,  been  disputed.     It  is  even  re 
cognised  in  the  very  codes  of  slave-legislation, 
which,  while  they  strip  a  man  of  liberty,  affirm 
his  right  to  life,  and  threaten  his  murderer  with 
punishment.      Now,    I   say,    a    being   having 
rights  cannot  justly  be  made  property  ;  for  this 
claim  over  him  virtually  annuls  all  his  rights. 
It  strips  him  of  all  power  to  assert  them.     It 
makes  it  a  crime  to   assert  them.     The  very 
essence  of  slavery  is,  to  put  a  man  defenceless 
into  the  hands  of  another.     The  right  claimed 
by  the  master,  to  task,  to  force,  to  imprison,  to 
whip,  and  to  punish  the  slave,  at  discretion, 
and  especially  to  prevent  the  least  resistance  to 
his  will,  is  a  virtual  denial  and  subversion  of  all 
the  rights   of  the  victim   of  his  pov/er.     The 
two   cannot   stand   together.      Can   we   doubt 
which  of  them  ought  to  fall  ? 

3.  Another  argument  against  property  is  to 
be  found  in  the  Essential  Equality  of  men.     I 


18  -   PROPERTY. 

know  that  this  doctrine,  'so  venerable  in  the  eyes 
of  our  fathers,  has  lately  been  denied.  Verbal 
logicians  have  told  us  that  men  are  "born 
equal"  only  in  the  sense  of  being  equally  born. 
They  have  asked  whether  all  are  equally  tall, 
strong,  or  beautiful;  or  whether  nature,  Pro 
crustes-like,  reduces  all  her  children  to  one 
standard  of  intellect  and  virtue.  By  such  argu 
ments  it  is  attempted  to  set  aside  the  principle 
of  equality,  on  which  the  soundest  moralists 
have  reared  the  structure  of  social  duty ;  and 
in  these  ways  the  old  foundations  of  despotic 
power,  which  our  fathers  in  their  simplicity 
thought  they  had  subverted,  are  laid  again  by 
their  sons.  ^.£ 

It  is  freely  granted  that  there  are  innumera 
ble  diversities  among  men ;  but  be  it  remem 
bered,  they  are  ordained  to  bind  men  together, 
and  not  to  subdue  one  to  the  other ;  ordained 
to  give  means  and  occasions  of  mutual  aid,  and 
to  carry  forward  each  and  all,  so  that  the  good 
of  all  is  equally  intended  in  this  distribution 
of  VEftious  gifts.  Be  it  also  remembered,  that 
these  diversities  among  men  are  as  nothing  in 
comparison  with  the  attributes  in  which  they 
agree;  and  it  is  this  which  constitutes  their 
essential  equality.  All  men  have  the  same 
rational  nature  and  the  same  power  of  con 
science,  and  all  are  equally  made  for  inde 
finite  improvement  of  these  divine  faculties, 


PROPERTY.  19 

and  for  the  happiness  to  be  found  in  their 
virtuous  use.  Who,  that  comprehends  these 
gifts,  does  not  see  that  the  diversities  of  the 
race  vanish  before  them  ?  Let  it  be  added, 
that  the  natural  advantages,  which  distinguish 
one  man  from  another,  are  so  bestowed  as  to 
counterbalance  one  another,  and  bestowed 
without  regard  to  rank  or  condition  in  life. 
Whoever  surpasses  in  one  endowment  is  infe 
rior  in  others.  Even  genius,  the  greatest  gift, 
is  found  in  union  with  strange  infirmities,  and 
often  places  its  possessors  below  ordinary  men 
in  the  conduct  of  life.  Great  learning  is  often 
put  to  shame  by  the  mother- wit  and  keen  good 
sense  of  uneducated  men.  Nature,  indeed,  pays 
no  heed  to  birth  or  condition  in  bestowing  her 
favors.  The  noblest  spirits  sometimes  grow  up 
in  the  obscurest  spheres.  Thus  equal  are  men : 
and  among  these  equals  who  can  substantiate 
his  claim  to  make  others  his  property,  his 
tools,  the  mere  instruments  of  his  private  inter 
est  and  gratification?  Let  this  claim  begin, 
and  where  will  it  stop?  If  one  may  assert 
it,  why  not  all  ?  Among  these  partakers  of 
the  same  rational  and  moral  nature,  who 
can  make  good  a  right  over  others,  which 
others  may  not  establish  over  himself?  Does 
he  insist  on  superior  strength  of  body  or  mind  ? 
Who  of  us  has  no  superior  in  one  or  the  other 
of  these  endowments  ?  Is  it  sure  that  the  slave 


20 


PROPERTY. 


or  the  slave's  child  may  not  surpass  his  master 
in  intellectual  energy  or  in  moral  worth  ?  Has 
nature  conferred  distinctions  which  tell  us 
plainly  who  shall  be  owners  and  who  be 
owned  ?  Who  of  us  can  unblushingly  lift  his 
head  and  say  that  God  has  written  "  Master" 
there?  or  who  can  show  the  word  "  Slave"  en 
graven  on  his  brother's  brow  ?  The  equality 
of  nature  makes  slavery  a  wrong.  Nature's 
seal  is  affixed  to  no  instrument  by  which  pro 
perty  in  a  single  human  being  is  conveyed. 

4.  That  a  human  being  cannot  be  justly  held 
and  used  as  property  is  apparent  from  the  very 
nature  of  property.  Property  is  an  exclusive 
right.  It  shuts  out  all  claim  but  that  of  the 
possessor.  What  one  man  owns  cannot  belong 
to  another.  What,  then,  is  the  consequence 
of  holding  a  human  being  as  property  1  Plainly 
this.  He  can  have  no  right  to  himself.  His 
limbs  are,  in  truth,  not  morally  his  own.  He 
has  not  a  right  to  his  own  strength.  It  belongs 
to  another.  His  will,  intellect,  and  muscles, 
all  the  powers  of  body  and  mind  which  are 
exercised  in  labor,  he  is  bound  to  regard  as 
another's.  Now,  if  there  be  property  in  any 
thing,  it  is  that  of  a  man  in  his  own  person, 
mind,  and  strength.  All  other  rights  are  weak, 
unmeaning,  compared  with  this,  and  in  deny 
ing  this  all  right  is  denied.  It  is  true  that  an 


PROPERTY.  21 

^dividual  may  forfeit  by  crime  his  right  to  the 
use  of  his  limbs,  perhaps  to  his  limbs,  and  even 
to  life.  But  the  very  idea  of  forfeiture  implies 
that  the  right  was  originally  possessed.  It  is 
true  that  a  man  may  by  contract  give  to  an 
other  a  limited  right  to  his  strength.  But  he 
gives  only  because  he  possesses  it,  and  -gives  it 
for  considerations  which  he  deems  beneficial  to 
himself;  and  the  right  conferred  ceases  at  once 
on  violation  of  the  conditions  on  which  it  was 
bestowed.  To  deny  the  right  of  a  human 
being  to  himself,  to  his  own  limbs  and  faculties, 
to  his  energy  of  body  and  mind,  is  an  absurd 
ity  too  gross  to  be  confuted  by  any  thing  but  a 
simple  statement.  Yet  this  absurdity  is  in 
volved  in  the  idea  of  his  belonging  to  another. 

5.  We  have  a  plain  recognition  of  the  princi 
ple  now  laid  down,  in  the  universal  indignation 
excited  towards  a  man  who  makes  another  his 
slave.  Our  laws  know  no  higher  crime  than 
that  of  reducing  a  man  to  slavery.  To  steal  or 
to  buy  an  African  on  his  own  shores  is  piracy. 
In  this  act  the  greatest  wrong  is  inflicted,  the 
most  sacred  right  violated.  But  if  a  human 
being  cannot  without  infinite  injustice  be  seized 
as  property,  then  he  cannot  without  equal 
wrong  be  held  and  used  as  such.  The  wrong 
in  the  first  seizure  lies  in  the  destination  of  a 
human  being  to  future  bondage3  to  the  criminal 


22 


PROPERTY. 


use  of  him  as  a  chattel  or  brute.  Can  that 
very  use,  which  makes  the  original  seizure  an 
enormous  wrong,  become  gradually  innocent? 
If  the  slave  receive  injury  without  measure  at 
the  first  moment  of  the  outrage,  is  he  less 
injured  by  being  held  fast  the  second  or  the 
third?  Does  the  duration  of  wrong,  the  in 
crease  of  it  by  continuance,  convert  it  into 
right?  It  is  true,  in  many  cases,  that  length 
of  possession  is  considered  as  giving  a  right, 
where  the  goods  were  acquired  by  unlawful 
means.  But  in  these  cases  the  goods  were 
such  as  might  justly  be  appropriated  to  indi 
vidual  use.  They  were  intended  by  the  Creator 
to  be  owned.  They  fulfil  their  purpose  by 
passing  into  the  hands  of  an  exclusive  possessor. 
It  is  essential  to  rightful  property  in  a  thing, 
that  the  thing  from  its  nature  may  be  rightfully 
appropriated.  If  it  cannot  originally  be  made 
one's  own  without  crime,  it  certainly  cannot 
be  continued  as  such  without  guilt.  Now  the 
ground,  on  which  the  seizure  of  the  African  on 
his  own  shore  is  condemned,  is,  that  he  is  a 
man,  who  has  by  his  nature  a  right  to  be  free. 
Ought  not,  then,  the  same  condemnation  to 
light  on  the  continuance  of  his  yoke?  Still 
more.  Whence  is  it  that  length  of  possession 
is  considered  by  the  laws  as  conferring  a  right? 
I  answer,  from  the  difficulty  of  determining 
the  original  proprietor,  and  from  the  apprehen- 


PROPERTY.  23 

sion  of  unsettling  all  property  by  carrying  back 
inquiry  beyond  a  certain  time.  Suppose,  how 
ever,  an  article  of  property  to  be  of  such  a  na 
ture  that  it  could  bear  the  name  of  the  true 
original  owner  stamped  on  it  in  bright  and 
indelible  characters.  In  this  case,  the  whole 
ground,  on  which  length  of  possession  bars 
other  claims,  would  fail.  The  proprietor  would 
not  be  concealed  or  rendered  doubtful  by  the 
lapse  of  time.  Would  not  he,  who  should  re 
ceive  such  an  article  from  a  robber  or  a  succes 
sion  of  robbers,  be  involved  in  their  guilt? 
Now  the  true  owner  of  a  human  being  is  made 
manifest  to  all.  It  is  Himself.  No  brand  on 
the  slave  was  ever  so  conspicuous  as  the  mark 
of  property  which  God  has  set  on  him.  God, 
in  making  him  a  rational  and  moral  being,  has 
put  a  glorious  stamp  on  him,  which  all  the 
slave-legislation  and  slave-markets  of  worlds 
cannot  efface.  Hence,  no  right  accrues  to  the 
master  from  the  length  of  the  wrong  which  has 
been  done  to  the  slave. 

6.  Another  argument  against  the  right  of  pro 
perty  in  man  may  be  drawn  from  a  very  obvious 
principle  of  moral  science.  It  is  a  plain  truth, 
universally  received,  that  every  right  supposes 
or  involves  a  corresponding  obligation.  If,  then, 
a  man  has  a  right  to  another's  person  or  pow- 
erSj  the  latter  is  under  obligation  to  give  him- 


24  PROPERTY. 

self  up  as  a  chattel  to  the  former.  This  is  his 
duty.  He  is  bound  to  be  a  slave ;  and  bound 
not  merely  by  the  Christian  law  which  enjoins 
submission  to  injury,  not  merely  by  prudential 
considerations  or  by  the  claims  of  public  order 
and  peace ;  but  bound  because  another  has  a 
right  of  ownership,  has  a  moral  claim  to  him, 
so  that  he  would  be  guilty  of  dishonesty,  of 
robbery,  in  withdrawing  himself  from  this 
other's  service.  It  is  his  duty  to  work  for  his 
master,  though  all  compulsion  were  withdrawn; 
and  in  deserting  him  he  would  commit  the 
crime  of  taking  away  another  man's  property, 
as  truly  as  if  he  were  to  carry  off  his  owner's 
purse.  Now  do  we  not  instantly  feel,  can  we 
help  feeling,  that  this  is  false  ?  Is  the  slave 
thus  morally  bound  ?  When  the  African  was 
first  brought  to  these  shores,  would  he  have 
violated  a  solemn  obligation  by  slipping  his 
chain,  and  flying  back  to  his  native  home? 
Would  he  not  have  been  bound  to  seize  the 
precious  opportunity  of  escape?  Is  the  slave 
under  a  moral  obligation  to  confine  himself,  his 
wife,  and  children,  to  a  spot  where  their  union 
in  a  moment  may  be  forcibly  dissolved  ?  Ought 
he  not,  if  he  can,  to  place  himself  and  his 
family  under  the  guardianship  of  equal  laws? 
Should  we  blame  him  for  leaving  his  yoke  ?  Do 
we  not  feel,  that,  in  the  same  condition,  a  sense 
of  duty  would  quicken  our  flying  steps? 


PROPERTY.  25 

Where,  then,  is  the  obligation  which  would 
necessarily  be  imposed,  if  the  right  existed 
which  the  master  claims  7  The  absence  of 
obligation  proves  the  want  of  the  right.  The 
claim  is  groundless.  It  is  a  cruel  wrong. 

7.  I  come  now  to  what  is  to  my  own  mind 
the  great  argument  against  seizing  and  using  a 
man  as  property.     He  cannot  be  property  in 
the  sight  of  God  and  justice,  because  he  is  a 
Rational,  Moral,  Immortal  Being ;  because  cre 
ated  in  God's  image,  and  therefore  in  the  high 
est  sense  his  child ;  because  created  to  unfold 
godlike  faculties,  and   to   govern  himself  by  a 
Divine  Law  written  on  his  heart,  and  repub- 
lished  in  God's  Word.     His  whole  nature  for 
bids   that   he   should    be   seized    as    property. 
From  his  very  nature  it  follows,  that  so  to  seize 
tym  is  to  offer  an  insult  to  his  Maker,  and  'to 
inflict   aggravated   social   wrong.     Into   every 
human  being  God  has  breathed  an  immortal 
spirit,   more  precious  than  the  whole  outward 
creation.     No  earthly  or  celestial  language  can 
exaggerate  the  worth  of  a  human  being.     No 
matter  how  obscure  his  condition.     Thought, 
Reason,  Conscience,  the  capacity  of  Virtue,  the 
capacity  of  Christian  Love,  an  Immortal  Des 
tiny,  an  intimate  moral  connection  with  God, — 
here  are  attributes  of  our  common  humanity 
which  reduce  to  insignificance  all  outward  dis- 


26  PROPERTY. 

tinctions,  and  make  every  human  being  un 
speakably  dear  to  his  Maker.  No  matter  how 
ignorant  he  may  be.  The  capacity  of  Im 
provement  allies  him  to  the  more  instructed 
of  his  race,  and  places  within  his  reach  the 
knowledge  and  happiness  of  higher  worlds. 
Every  human  being  has  in  him  the  germ  of  the 
greatest  idea  in  the  universe,  the  idea  of  God ; 
and  to  unfold  this  is  the  end  of  his  existence. 
Every  human  being  has  in  his  breast  the  ele 
ments  of  that  Divine,  Everlasting  Law,  which 
the  highest  orders  of  the  creation  obey.  He 
has  the  idea  of  Duty;  and  to  unfold,  revere, 
obey  this,  is  the  very  purpose  for  which  life  was 
given.  Every  human  being  has  the  idea  of 
what  is  meant  by  that  word,  Truth ;  that  is,  he 
sees,  however  dimly,  the  great  object  of  Divine 
and  created  intelligence,  and  is  capable  of  ever- 
enlarging  perceptions  of  truth.  Every  human 
being  has  affections,  which  may  be  purified 
and  expanded  into  a  Sublime  Love.  He  has, 
too,  the  idea  of  Happiness,  and  a  thirst  for  it 
which  cannot  be  appeased.  Such  is  our  nature. 
Wherever  we  see  a  man,  we  see  the  possessor 
of  these  great  capacities.  Did  God  make  such 
a  being  to  be  owned  as  a  tree  or  a  brute  ?  How 
plainly  was  he  made  to  exercise,  unfold,  im 
prove  his  highest  powers,  made  for  a  moral, 
spiritual  good !  and  how  is  he  wronged,  and 
his  Creator  opposed,  when  he  is  forced  and 


PROPERTY.  27 

broken  into  a  tool  to  another's  physical  enjoy 
ment  ! 

Such  a  being  was  plainly  made  for  an  End 
in  Himself.  He  is  a  Person,  not  a  Thing.  He 
is  an  End,  not  a  mere  Instrument  or  Means. 
He  was  made  for  his  own  virtue  and  happiness. 
Is  this  end  reconcilable  with  his  being  held  and 
used  as  a  chattel?  The  sacrifice  of  such  a 
being  to  another's  will,  to  another's  present, 
outward,  ill-comprehended  good,  is  the  greatest 
violence  which  can  be  offered  to  any  creature 
of  God.  It  is  to  degrade  him  from  his  rank  in 
the  universe,  to  make  him  a  means,  not  an  end, 
to  cast  him  out  from  God's  spiritual  family  into 
the  brutal  herd. 

Such  a  being  was  plainly  made  to  obey  a 
Law  within  Himself.  This  is  the  essence  of  a 
moral  being.  He  possesses,  as  a  part  of  his 
nature,  and  the  most  essential  part,  a  sense  of 
Duty,  which  he  is  to  reverence  and  follow,  in 
opposition  to  all  pleasure  or  pain,  to  all  inter 
fering  human  wills.  The  great  purpose  of  all 
good  education  and  discipline  is,  to  make  a 
man  Master  of  Himself,  to  excite  him  to  act 
from  a  principle  in  his  own  mind,  to  lead  him 
to  propose  his  own  perfection  as  his  supreme 
law  and  end.  And  is  this  highest  purpose  of 
man's  nature  to  be  reconciled  with  entire  sub 
jection  to  a  foreign  will,  to  an  outward,  over 
whelming  force,  which  is  satisfied  with  nothing 
but  complete  submission  ? 


28  PROPERTY. 

The  end  of  such  a  being  as  we  have  de 
scribed  is,  manifestly,  Improvement.  Now  it 
is  the  fundamental  law  of  our  nature,  that 
all  our  powers  are  to  improve  by  free  exer 
tion.  Action  is  the  indispensable  condition 
of  progress  to  the  intellect,  conscience,  and 
heart.  Is  it  not  plain,  then,  that  a  human 
being  cannot,  without  wrong,  be  owned  by 
another,  who  claims,  as  proprietor,  the  right  to 
repress  the  powers  of  his  slaves,  to  withhold 
from  them  the  means  of  development,  to  keep 
them  within  the  limits  which  are  necessary  to 
contentment  in  chains,  to  shut  out  every  ray  of 
light  and  every  generous  sentiment  which  may 
interfere  with  entire  subjection  to  his  will? 

No  man,  who  seriously  considers  what  hu 
man  nature  is,  and  what  it  was  made  for,  can 
think  of  setting  up  a  claim  to  a  fellow-creature. 
What !  own  a  spiritual  being,  a  being  made  to 
know  and  adore  God,  and  who  is  to  outlive  the 
sun  and  stars !  What !  chain  to  our  lowest 
uses  a  being  made  for  truth  and  virtue  !  con 
vert  into  a  brute  instrument  that  intelligent 
nature,  on  which  the  idea  of  Duty  has  dawned, 
and  which  is  a  nobler  type  of  God  than  all  out 
ward  creation  !  Should  we  riot  deem  it  a  wrong 
which  no  punishment  could  expiate,  were  one 
of  our  children  seized  as  property,  and  driven 
by  the  whip  to  toil?  And  shall  God's  child, 
dearer  to  him  than  an  only  son  to  a  human 


PROPERTY.  29 

parent,  be  thus  degraded?  Every  thing  else 
may  be  owned  in  the  universe ;  but  a  moral, 
rational  being  cannot  be  property.  Suns  and 
stars  may  be  owned,  but  not  the  lowest  spirit. 
Touch  any  thing  but  this.  Lay  not  your  hand 
on  God's  rational  offspring.  The  whole  spiri 
tual  world  cries  out,  Forbear  !  The  highest 
intelligences  recognise  their  own  nature,  their 
own  rights,  in  the  humblest  human  being.  By 
that  priceless,  immortal  spirit  which  dwells  in 
him,  by  that  likeness  of  God  .which  he  wears, 
tread  him  not  in  the  dust,  confound  him  not 
with  the  brute. 

We  have  thus  seen  that  a  human  being  can 
not  rightfully  be  held  and  used  as  property. 
No  legislation,  not  that  of  all  countries  or 
worlds,  could  make  him  so.  Let  this  be  laid 
down,  as  a  first,  fundamental  truth.  Let  us 
hold  it  fast,  as  a  most  sacred,  precious  truth. 
Let  us  hold  it  fast  against  all  customs,  all 
laws,  all  rank,  wealth  and  power.  Let  it  be 
armed  with  the  whole  authority  of  the  civilized 
and  Christian  world. 

I  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  no  reader 
would  be  so  wanting  in  moral  discrimination 
and  moral  feeling,  as  to  urge  that  men  may 
rightfully  be  seized  and  held  as  property,  be 
cause  various  governments  have  so  ordained. 
What!  is  human  legislation  the  measure  of 


30  PROPERTY. 

right  ?  Are  God's  laws  to  be  repealed  by 
man's?  Can  government  do  no  wrong?  To 
what  a  mournful  extent  is  the  history  of  hu 
man  governments  a  record  of  wrongs  !  How 
much  does  the  progress  of  civilization  consist  in 
the  substitution  of  just  and  humane,  for  barbar 
ous  and  oppressive  laws  !  The  individual,  in 
deed,  is  never  authorized  to  oppose  physical 
force  to  unrighteous  ordinances  of  government, 
as  long  as  the  community  choose  to  sustain  them. 
But  criminal  legislation  ought  to  be  freely  and 
earnestly  exposed.  Injustice  is  never  so  terri 
ble,  and  never  so  corrupting,  as  when  armed 
with  the  sanctions  of  law.  The  authority  of 
government,  instead  of  being  a  reason  for  silence 
under  wrongs,  is  a  reason  for  protesting  against 
wrong  with  the  undivided  energy  of  argument, 
entreaty,  and  solemn  admonition. 


CHAPTER    II. 


RIGHTS. 


I  NOW  proceed  to  the  second  division  of  the 
subject.  I  am  to  show  that  man  has  sacred 
Rights,  the  gifts  of  God,  and  inseparable  from 
human  nature,  which  are  violated  by  slavery. 
Some  important  principles,  which  belong  to  this 
head,  were  necessarily  anticipated  under  the 
preceding;  but  they  need  a  fuller  exposition. 
The  whole  subject  of  Rights  needs  to  be  recon 
sidered.  Speculations  and  reasonings  about  it 
have  lately  been  given  to  the  public,  not  only 
false,  but  dangerous  to  freedom,  and  there  is  a 
strong  tendency  to  injurious  views.  Rights  are 
made  to  depend  on  circumstances,  so  that  pre 
tences  may  easily  be  made  or  created  for  vio 
lating  them  successively,  till  none  shall  remain. 
Human  rights  have  been  represented  as  so 
modified  and  circumscribed  by  men's  entrance 
into  the  social  state  that  only  the  shadows  of 
them  are  left.  They  have  been  spoken  of  as 
absorbed  in  the  public  good;  so  that  a  man 


32  RIGHTS. 

may  be  innocently  enslaved,  if  the  public  good 
shall  so  require.  To  meet  fully  all  these  errors, 
for  such  I  hold  them,  a  larger  work  than  the 
present  is  required.  The  nature  of  man,  his 
relations  to  the  state,  the  limits  of  civil  govern 
ment,  the  elements  of  the  public  good,  and  the 
degree  to  which  the  individual  must  be  surren 
dered  to  this  good,  these  are  the  topics  which 
the  present  subject  involves.  I  cannot  enter 
into  them  particularly,  but  shall  lay  down 
what  seem  to  me  the  great  and  true  principles 
in  regard  to  them.  I  shall  show  that  man  has 
rights  from  his  very  nature,  not  the  gifts  of  so 
ciety,  but  of  God  ;  that  they  are  not  surrendered 
on  entering  the  social  state ;  that  they  must  not 
be  taken  away  under  the  plea  of  public  good ; 
that  the  Individual  is  never  to  be  sacrificed  to 
the  Community ;  that  the  idea  of  Rights  is  to 
prevail  above  all  the  interests  of  the  state. 

Man  has  rights  by  nature.  The  disposition 
of  some  to  deride  abstract  rights,  as  if  all  rights 
were  uncertain,  mutable,  and  conceded  by  so 
ciety,  shows  a  lamentable  ignorance  of  human 
nature.  Whoever  understands  this  must  see 
in  it  an  immovable  foundation  of  rights.  These 
are  gifts  of  the  Creator,  bound  up  indissolubly 
with  our  moral  constitution.  In  the  order  of 
things,  they  precede  society,  lie  at  its  foun 
dation,  constitute  man's  capacity  for  it,  and 
are  the  great  objects  of  social  institutions.  The 


RIGHTS.  33 

consciousness  of  rights  is  not  a  creation  of  hu 
man  art,  a  conventional  sentiment,  but  essen 
tial  to  and  inseparable  from  the  human  soul. 

Man's  rights  belong  to  him  as  a  Moral  Being, 
as  capable  of  perceiving  moral  distinctions,  as 
a  subject  of  moral  obligation.  As  soon  as  he 
becomes  conscious  of  Duty,  a  kindred  con 
sciousness  springs  up  that  he  has  a  Right  to  do 
what  the  sense  of  duty  enjoins,  and  that  no 
foreign  will  or  power  can  obstruct  his  moral 
action  without  crime.  He  feels  that  the  sense 
of  duty  was  given  to  him  as  a  Law,  that  it 
makes  him  responsible  for  himself,  that  to  ex 
ercise,  unfold,  and  obey  it  is  the  end  of  his 
being,  and  that  he  has  a  right  to  exercise  and 
obey,  it  without  hindrance  or  opposition.  A 
consciousness  of  dignity,  however  obscure,  be 
longs  also  to  this  divine  principle ;  and  though 
he  may  want  words  to  do  justice  to  his  thoughts, 
he  feels  that  he  has  that  within  him  which 
makes  him  essentially  equal  to  all  around  him. 

The  sense  of  duty  is  the  fountain  of  human 
rights.  In  other  words,  the  same  inward  prin 
ciple,  which  teaches  the  former,  bears  witness 
to  the  latter.  Duties  and  Rights  must  stand  or 
fall  together.  It  has  been  too  common  to  op 
pose  them  to  one  another ;  but  they  are  indisso- 
lubly  joined  together.  That  same  inward  prin 
ciple,  which  teaches  a  man  what  he  is  bound 
to  do  to  others,  teaches  equally,  and  at  the 
3 


34 


RIGHTS. 


what  others  are  bound  to  do  to 
him.  That  same  voice,  which  forbids  him  to 
injure  a  single  fellow-creature,  forbids  every 
fellow-creature  to  do  him  harm.  His  conscience, 
in  revealing  the  moral  law,  does  not  reveal  a 
law  for  himself  only,  but  speaks  as  a  Univer 
sal  Legislator.  He  has  an  intuitive  conviction, 
that  the  obligations  of  this  divine  code  press 
on  others  as  truly  as  on  himself.  That  prin 
ciple,  which  teaches  him  that  he  sustains  the 
relation  of  brotherhood  to  all  human  .beings, 
teaches  him  that  this  relation  is  reciprocal,  that 
it  gives  indestructible  claims  as  well  as  imposes 
solemn  duties,  and  that  what  he  owes  to  the 
members  of  this  vast  family,  they  owe  to  him 
in  return.  Thus  the  moral  nature  involves 
rights.  These  enter  into  its  very  essence. 
They  are  taught  by  the  very  voice  which  en 
joins  duty.  Accordingly  there  is  no  deeper 
principle  in  human  nature  than  the  conscious 
ness  of  rights.  So  profound,  so  ineradicable  is 
this  sentiment,  that  the  oppressions  of  ages 
have  nowhere  wholly  stifled  it. 

Having  shown  the  foundation  of  human 
rights  in  human  nature,  it  may  be  asked  what 
they  are.  Perhaps  they  do  not  admit  very 
accurate  definition  any  more  than  human  du 
ties  ;  for  the  Spiritual  cannot  be  weighed  and 
measured  like  the  Material.  Perhaps  a  minute 
criticism  may  find  fault  with  the  most  guarded 


RIGHTS.  35 

exposition  of  them ;  but  they  may  easily  be 
stated  in  language  which  the  unsophisticated 
mind  will  recognise  as  the  truth.  Volumes 
could  not  do  justice  to  them ;  and  yetrperhaps 
they  may  be  comprehended  in  one  sentence. 
They  may  all  be  comprised  in  the  right,  which 
belongs  to  every  rational  being,  to  exercise  his 
powers  for  the  promotion  of  his  own  and  others' 
Happiness  and  Virtue.  These  are  the  great 
purposes  of  his  existence.  For  these  his  powers 
were  given,  and  to  these  he  is  bound  to  devote 
them.  He  is  bound  to  make  himself  and  others 
better  and  happier,  according  to  his  ability. 
His  ability  for  this  work  is  a  sacred  trust  from 
God,  the  greatest  of  all  trusts.  He  must  answer 
for  the  waste  or  abuse  of  it.  He  consequently 
suffers  an  unspeakable  wrong,  when  stripped 
of  it  by  others,  or  forbidden  to  employ  it  for 
the  ends  for  which  it  is  given;  when  the  powers, 
which  God  has  given  for  such  generous  usesy 
are  impaired  or  destroyed  by  others,  or  the 
means  for  their  action  and  growth  are  forcibly 
withheld.  As  every  human  being  is  bound  to 
employ  his  faculties  for  his  own  and  others' 
good,  there  is  an  obligation  on  each  to  leave  all 
free  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  end ;  and 
whoever  respects  this  obligation,  whoever  uses 
his  own,  without  invading  others'  powers,  or 
obstructing  others'  duties,  has  a  sacred,  inde 
feasible  right  to  be  unassailed,  unobstructed, 


36 


RIGHTS. 


unharmed  by  all  with  whom  he  may  be  con 
nected.  Here  is  the  grand,  all-comprehending 
right  of  human  nature.  Every  man  should 
revere  it,  should  assert  it  for  himself  and  for 
all,  and  should  bear  solemn  testimony  against 
every  infraction  of  it,  by  whomsoever  made  or 
endured. 

Having  considered  the  great  fundamental 
right  of  human  nature,  particular  rights  may 
easily  be  deduced.  Every  man  has  a  right 
to  exercise  and  invigorate  his  intellect  or  the 
power  of  knowledge,  for  knowledge  is  the 
essential  condition  of  successful  effort  for  every 
good  ;  and  whoever  obstructs  or  quenches 
the  intellectual  life  in  another  inflicts  a  griev 
ous  and  irreparable  wrong.  Every  man  has 
a  right  to  inquire  into  his  duty,  and  to  con 
form  himself  to  what  he  learns  of  it.  Every 
man  has  a  right  to  use  the  means,  given  by 
God  and  sanctioned  by  virtue,  for  bettering 
his  condition.  He  has  a  right  to  be  respected 
according  to  his  moral  worth;  a  right  to  be 
regarded  as  a  member  of  the  community  to 
which  he  belongs,  and  to  be  protected  by  im 
partial  laws ;  and  a  right  to  be  exempted  from 
coercion,  stripes,  and  punishment,  as  long  as 
he  respects  the  rights  of  others.  He  has  a 
right  to  an  equivalent  for  his  labor.  He  has  a 
right  to  sustain  domestic  relations,  to  discharge 
their  duties,  and  to  enjoy  the  happiness  which 


RIGHTS.  37 

flows  from  fidelity  in  these  and  other  domestic 
relations.  Such  are  a  few  of  human  rights; 
and  if  so,  what  a  grievous  wrong  is  slavery  ! 

Perhaps  nothing  has  done  more  to  impair  the 
sense  of  the  reality  and  sacredness  of  human 
rights,  and  to  sanction  oppression,  thaji  loose 
ideas  as  to  the  change  made  in  man's  natural 
rights  by  his  entrance  into  civil  society.  It  is 
commonly  said  that  men  part  with  a  portion 
of  these  by  becoming  a  community,  a  body 
politic ;  that  government  consists  of  powers 
surrendered  by  the  individual ;  and  it  is  said, 
"If  certain  rights  and  powers  may  be  surren 
dered,  why  not  others?  why  not  all?  what 
limit  is  to  be  set  ?  The  good  of  the  community, 
to  which  a  part  is  given  up,  may  demand  the 
whole ;  and  in  this  good,  all  private  rights  are 
merged."  This  is  the  logic  of  despotism.  We 
are  grieved  that  it  finds  its  way  into  republics, 
and  that  it  sets  down  the  great  principles  of 
freedom  as  abstractions  and  metaphysical  theo 
ries,  good  enough  for  the  cloister,  but  too  refined 
for  practical  and  real  life. 

Human  rights,  however,  are  not  to  be  so  rea 
soned  away.  They  belong,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  man  as  a  moral  being,  and  nothing  can  divest 
him  of  them  but  the  destruction  of  his  nature. 
They  are  not  to  be  given  up  to  society  as  a 
prey.  On  the  contrary,  the  great  end  of  civil 
society  is  to  secure  them,  The  great  end  of 


38  RIGHTS. 

government  is  to  repress  all  wrong.  Its  highest 
function  is  to  protect  the  weak  against  the 
powerful,  so  that  the  obscurest  human  being 
may  enjoy  his  rights  in  peace.  Strange  that  an 
institution,  built  on  the  idea  of  Rights,  should 
be  used  to  unsettle  this  idea,  to  confuse  our 
moral  perceptions,  to  sanctify  wrongs  as  means 
of  general  good  ! 

It  is  said,  that,  in  forming  civil  society,  the 
individual  surrenders  a  part  of  his  rights.  It 
would  be  more  proper  to  say  that  he  adopts 
new  modes  of  securing  them.  He  consents, 
for  example,  to  desist  from  self-defence,  that  he 
and  all  may  be  more  effectually  defended  by 
the  public  force.  He  consents  to  submit  his 
cause  to  an  umpire  or  tribunal,  that  justice  may 
be  more  impartially  awarded,  and  that  he  and 
all  may  more  certainly  receive  their  due.  He 
consents  to  part  with  a  portion  of  his  property 
in  taxation,  that  his  own  and  others'  property 
may  be  the  more  secure.  He  submits  to  certain 
restraints,  that  he  and  others  may  enjoy  more 
enduring  freedom.  He  expects  an  equivalent 
for  what  he  relinquishes,  and  insists  on  it  as 
his  right.  He  is  wronged  by  partial  laws, 
which  compel  him  to  contribute  to  the  state 
beyond  his  proportion,  his  ability,  and  the 
measure  of  benefits  which  he  receives.  How 
absurd  is  it  to  suppose,  that,  by  consenting  to 
be  protected  by  the  state,  and  by  yielding  it 


RIGHTS.  39 

the  means,  he  surrenders  the  very  rights  which 
were  the  objects  of  his  accession  to  the  social 
compact ! 

The  authority  of  the  state  to  impose  laws  on 
its  members  I  cheerfully  allow;  but  this  has 
limits,  which  are  found  to  be  more  and  more 
narrow  in  proportion  to  the  progress  of  moral 
science.  The  state  is  equally  restrained  with 
individuals  by  the  Moral  Law.  For  example, 
it  may  not,  must  not,  on  any  account,  put  an 
innocent  man  to  death,  or  require  of  him  a 
dishonorable  or  criminal  service.  It  may  de 
mand  allegiance,  but  only  on  the  ground  of  the 
protection  it  affords.  It  may  levy  taxes,  but 
only  because  it  takes  all  property  and  all  inter 
ests  under  its  shield.  It  may  pass  laws,  but 
only  impartial  ones,  framed  for  the  whole,  and 
not  for  the  few.  It  must  not  seize,  by  a  special 
act,  the  property  of  the  humblest  individual, 
without  making  him  an  equivalent.  It  must 
regard  every  man,  over  whom  it  extends  its 
authority,  as  a  vital  part  of  itself,  as  entitled  to 
its  care  and  to  its  provisions  for  liberty  and 
happiness.  If,  in  an  emergency,  its  safety, 
which  is  the  interest  of  each  and  all,  may  de 
mand  the  imposition  of  peculiar  restraints  on 
one  or  many,  it  is  bound  to  limit  these  restric 
tions  to  the  precise  point  which  its  safety  pre 
scribes,  to  remove  the  necessity  of  them  as  far 
and  as  fast  as  possible,  to  compensate  by  pecu- 


40 


RIGHTS. 


liar  protection  such  as  it  deprives  of  the  ordi 
nary  means  of  protecting  themselves,  and,  in 
general,  to  respect  and  provide  for  liberty  in 
the  very  acts  which  for  a  time  restrain  it.  The 
idea  of  Rights  should  be  fundamental  and 
supreme  in  civil  institutions.  Government  be 
comes  a  nuisance  and  scourge,  in  proportion  as 
it  sacrifices  these  to  the  many  or  the  few. 
Government,  I  repeat  it,  is  equally  bound  with 
the  individual  by  the  Moral  Law.  The  ideas 
of  Justice  and  Rectitude,  of  what  is  due  to 
man  from  his  fellow-creatures,  of  the  claims  of 
every  moral  being,  are  far  deeper  and  more 
primitive  than  Civil  Polity.  Government,  far 
from  originating  them,  owes  to  them  its  strength. 
Right  is  older  than  human  law.  Law  ought  to 
be  its  voice.  It  should  be  built  on  and  should 
correspond  to  the  principle  of  justice  in  the 
human  breast,  and  its  weakness  is  owing  to 
nothing  more  than  to  its  clashing  with  our  in 
destructible  moral  convictions. 

That  government  is  most  perfect,  in  which 
Policy  is  most  entirely  subjected  to  Justice,  or 
in  which  the  supreme  and  constant  aim  is  to 
secure  the  rights  of  every  human  being.  This 
is  the  beautiful  idea  of  a  free  government,  and 
no  government  is  free  but  in  proportion  as  it 
realizes  this.  Liberty  must  not  be  confounded 
with  popular  institutions.  A  representative 
government  may  be  as  despotic  as  an  absolute 


RIGHTS. 


41 


monarchy.  In  as  far  as  it  tramples  on  the 
rights  whether  of  many  or  one,  it  is  a  despotism. 
The  sovereign  power,  whether  wielded  by  a 
single  hand  or  several  hands,  by  a  king  or  a 
congress,  which  spoils  one  human  being  of  the 
immunities  and  privileges  bestowed  on  him  by 
God,  is  so  far  a  tyranny.  The  great  argument 
in  favor  of  representative  institutions  is,  that,  a 
people's  rights  are  safest  in  their  own  hands, 
and  should  never  be  surrendered  to  an  irre 
sponsible  power.  Rights,  Rights,  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  a  popular  government ;  and 
when  this  betrays  them,  the  wrong  is  more 
aggravated  than  when  they  are  crushed  by 
despotism. 

Still  the  question  will  be  asked,  "Is  not  the 
General  Good  the  supreme  law  of  the  state? 
Are  not  all  restraints  on  the  individual  just, 
which  this  demands  ?  When  the  rights  of  the 
individual  clash  with  this,  must  they  not  yield  ? 
Do  they  not,  indeed,  cease  to  be  rights  ?  Must 
not  every  thing  give  place  to  the  General 
Good?"  I  have  started  this  question  in  various 
forms,  because  I  deem  it  worthy  of  particular 
examination.  Public  and  private  morality,  the 
freedom  and  safety  of  our  national  institutions, 
are  greatly  concerned  in  settling  the  claims  of 
the  "  General  Good."  In  monarchies,  the  Di 
vine  Right  of  kings  swallowed  up  all  others. 
In  republics  the  General  Good  threatens  the 


42  RIGHTS. 

same  evil.  It  is  a  shelter  for  the  abuses  and 
usurpations  of  government,  for  the  profligacies 
of  statesmen,  for  the  vices  of  parties,  for  the 
wrongs  of  slavery.  In  considering  this  subject, 
I  take  the  hazard  of  repeating  principles  al 
ready  laid  down ;  but  this  will  be  justified  by 
the  importance  of  reaching  and  determining 
the  truth.  Is  the  General  Good,  then,  the  su 
preme  law  to  which  every  thing  must  bow  ? 

This  question  may  be  settled  at  once  by  pro 
posing  another.  Suppose  the  public  good  to 
require  that  a  number  of  the  members  of  a 
state,  no  matter  how  few,  should  perjure  them 
selves,  or  should  disclaim  their  faith  in  God 
and  virtue.  Would  their  right  to  follow  con 
science  and  God  be  annulled  ?  Would  they  be 
bound  to  sin  ?  Suppose  a  conqueror  to  menace 
a  state  with  ruin,  unless  its  members  should 
insult  their  parents,  and  stain  themselves  with 
crimes  at  which  nature  revolts.  Must  the 
public  good  prevail  over  purity  and  our  holiest 
affections  ?  Do  we  not  all  feel  that  there  are 
higher  goods  than  even  the  safety  of  the  state? 
that  there  is  a  higher  law  than  that  of  might 
iest  empires?  that  the  idea  of  Rectitude  is 
deeper  in  human  nature  than  that  of  private  or 
public  interest  ?  and  that  this  is  to  bear  sway 
over  all  private  and  public  acts? 

The  supreme  law  of  a  state  is  not  its  safety, 
its  power,  its  prosperity,  its  affluence,  the 


RIGHTS.  43 

flourishing  state  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
the  arts.  These  objects,  constituting  what  is 
commonly  called  the  Public  Good,  are,  indeed, 
proposed,  and  ought  to  be  proposed,  in  the 
constitution  and  administration  of  states.  But 
there  is  a  higher  law,  even  Virtue,  Rectitude, 
the  voice  of  Conscience,  the  Will  of  God. 
Justice  is -a  greater  good  than  property,  not 
greater  in  degree,  but  in  kind.  Universal  be 
nevolence  is  infinitely  superior  to  prosperity. 
Religion,  the  love  of  God,  is  worth  incompara 
bly  more  than  all  his  outward  gifts.  A  com 
munity,  to  secure  or  aggrandize  itself,  must 
never  forsake  the  Right,  the  Holy,  the  Just. 

Moral  Good,  Rectitude  in  all  its  branches,  is 
the  Supreme  Good ;  by  which  I  do  not  intend 
that  it  is  the  surest  means  to  the  security  and 
prosperity  of  the  state.  Such,  indeed,  it  is,  but 
this  is  too  low  a  view.  It  must  not  be  looked 
upon  as  a  Means,  an  Instrument.'  It  is  the 
Supreme  End,  and  states  are  bound  to  subject 
to  it  all  their  legislation,  be  the  apparent  loss 
of  prosperity  ever  so  great.  National  wealth 
is  not  the  End.  It  derives  all  its  worth  from 
national  virtue.  If  accumulated  by  rapacity, 
conquest,  or  any  degrading  means,  or  if  con 
centrated  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  whom  it 
strengthens  to  crush  the  many,  it  is  a  curse. 
National  wealth  is  a  blessing,  only  when  it 
springs  from  and  represents  the  intelligence  and 


44  RIGHTS. 

virtue  of  the  community,  when  it  is  a  fruit  and 
expression  of  good  habits,  of  respect  for  the 
rights  of  all,  of  impartial  and  beneficent  legis 
lation,  when  it  gives  impulse  to  the  higher 
faculties,  and  occasion  and  incitement  to  justice 
and  beneficence.  No  greater  calamity  can 
befall  a  people  than  to  prosper  by  crime.  No 
success  can  be  a  compensation  for  the  wound 
inflicted  on  a  nation's  mind  by  renouncing 
Right  as  its  Supreme  Law. 

Let  a  people  exalt  Prosperity  above  Rectitude, 
and  a  more  dangerous  end  cannot  be  proposed. 
Public  Prosperity,  General  Good,  regarded  by 
itself,  or  apart  from  the  moral  law,  is  some 
thing  vague,  unsettled,  and  uncertain,  and  will 
infallibly  be  so  construed  by  the  selfish  and 
grasping  as  to  secure  their  own  aggrandize 
ment.  It  may  be  made  to  wear  a  thousand  forms, 
according  to  men's  interests  and  passions.  This 
is  illustrated  by  every  day's  history.  Not  a 
party  springs  up,  which  does  not  sanctify  all 
its  projects  for  monopolizing  power  by  the  plea 
of  General  Good.  Not  a  measure,  however 
ruinous,  can  be  proposed,  which  cannot  be 
shown  to  favor  one  or  another  national  interest. 
The  truth  is,  that,  in  the  uncertainty  of  human 
affairs,  an  uncertainty  growing  out  of  the  infi 
nite  and  very  subtile  causes  which  are  acting 
on  communities,  the  consequences  of  no  meas 
ure  can  be  foretold  with  certainty.  The  best 


RIGHTS.  45 

concerted  schemes  of  policy  often  fail ;  whilst 
a  rash  and  profligate  administration  may,  by 
unexpected  concurrences  of  events,  seem  to 
advance  a  nation's  glory.  In  regard  to  the 
means  of  national  prosperity  the  wisest  ar? 
weak  judges.  For  example,  the  present  rapid 
growth  of  this  country,  carrying,  as  it  does, 
vast  multitudes  beyond  the  institutions  of  reli 
gion  and  education,  may  be  working  ruin, 
whilst  the  people  exult  in  it  as  a  pledge  of 
greatness.  We  are  too  shortsighted  to  find 
our  law  in  outward  interests.  To  states,  as  to 
individuals,  Rectitude  is  the  Supreme  Law. 
It  was  never  designed  that  the  public  good,  as 
disjoined  from  this,  as  distinct  from  justice  and 
reverence  for  all  rights,  should  be  comprehended 
and  made  our  end.  Statesmen  work  in  the 
dark,  until  the  idea  of  Right  towers  above 
expediency  or  wealth.  Woe  to  /that  people 
which  would  found  its  prosperity  in  wrong ! 
It  is  time  that  the  low  maxims  of  policy,  which 
have  ruled  for  ages,  should  fall.  It  is  time  that, 
public  interest  should  no  longer  hallow  injus 
tice,  and  fortify  government  in  making  the 
weak  their  prey. 

In  this  discussion,  I  have  used  the  phrase, 
Public  or  General  Good,  in  its  common  accep 
tation,  as  signifying  the  safety  and  prosperity 
of  a  state.  Why  can  it  not  be  used  in  a  larger 
sense  1  Why  can  it  not  be  made  to  compre- 


46  RIGHTS. 

hend  inward  and  moral,  as  well  as  outward 
good  ?  And  why  cannot  the  former  be  under 
stood  to  be  incomparably  the  most  important 
element  of  the  public  weal  ?  Then,  indeed,  I 
should  assent  to  the  proposition,  that  the  Gen 
eral  Good  is  the  Supreme  Law.  So  construed, 
it  would  support  the  great  truths  which  I  have 
maintained.  It  would  condemn  the  infliction 
of  wrong  on  the  humblest  individual,  as  a  na 
tional  calamity.  It  would  plead  with  us  to 
extend  to  every  individual  the  means  of  im 
proving  his  character  and  lot. 

If  the  remarks  under  this  head  be  just,  it 
will  follow  that  the  good  of  the  Individual  is 
more  important  than  the  outward  prosperity 
of  the  State.  The  former  is  not  vague  and 
unsettled,  like  the  latter,  and  it  belongs  to  a 
higher  order  of  interests.  It  consists  in  the 
free  exertion  and  expansion  of  the  individual's 
powers,  especially  of  his  higher  faculties ;  in 
the  energy  of  his  intellect,  conscience,  and 
good  affections;  in  sound  judgment;  in  the 
acquisition  of  truth ;  in  laboring  honestly  for 
himself  and  his  family ;  in  loving  his  Creator, 
and  subjecting  his  own  will  to  the  Divine ;  in 
loving  his  fellow-creatures,  and  making  cheer 
ful  sacrifices  to  their  happiness ;  in  friendship  ; 
in  sensibility  to  the  beautiful,  whether  in  na 
ture  or  art ;  in  loyalty  to  his  principles ;  in 
moral  courage  •  in  self-respect ;  in'  understand- 


RIGHTS.  47 

ing  and  asserting  his  rights ;  and  in  the  Chris 
tian  hope  of  immortality.  Such  is  the  good  of 
the  Individual ;  a  more  sacred,  exalted,  endur 
ing  interest,  than  any  accessions  of  wealth  or 
power  to  the  State.  Let  it  not  be  sacrificed  to 
these.  He  should  find,  in  his  connection  with 
the  community,  aids  to  the  accomplishment  of 
these  purposes  of  his  being,  and  not  be  chained 
and  subdued  by  it  to  the  inferior  interests  of 
any  fellow-creature. 

In  all  ages  the  Individual  has  in  one  form  or 
another  been  trodden  in  the  dust.  In  monar 
chies  and  aristocracies  he  has  been  sacrificed  to 
One  or  to  the  Few ;  who,  regarding  government 
as  an  heirloom  in  their  families,  and  thinking 
of  the  people  as  made  only  to  live  and  die  for 
their  glory,  have  not  dreamed  that  the  sove 
reign  power  was  designed  to  shield  every  man, 
without  exception,  from  wrong.  In  the  ancient 
Republics,  the  Glory  of  the  State,  especially 
Conquest,  was  the  end  to  which  the  individual 
was  expected  to  offer  himself  a  victim,  and  in 
promoting  which  no  cruelty  was  to  be  declined, 
no  human  right  revered.  He  was  merged  in  a 
great  whole,  called  the  Commonwealth,  to 
which  his  whole  nature  was  to  be  immolated. 
It  was  the  glory  of  the  American  people,  that 
in  their  Declaration  of  Independence  they  took 
the  ground  of  the  indestructible  rights  of  every 
human  being.  They  declared  all  men  to  be 


48  RIGHTS. 

essentially  equal,  and  each  bom  to  be  free. 
They  did  not,  like  the  Greek  or  Roman,  assert 
for  themselves  a  liberty,  which  they  burned  to 
wrest  from  other  states.  They  spoke  in  the 
name  of  humanity,  as  the  representatives  of  the 
rights  of  the  feeblest,  as, well  as  mightiest  of 
their  race.  They  published  universal,  ever 
lasting  principles,  which  are  to  work  out  the 
deliverance  of  every  human  being.  Such  was 
their  glory.  Let  not  the  idea  of  Rights  be 
erased  from  their  children's  minds  by  false 
ideas  of  public  good.  Let  not  the  sacredness 
of  Individual  Man  be  forgotten  in  the  feverish 
pursuit  of  property.  It  is  more  important  that 
the  Individual  should  respect  himself,  and  be 
respected  by  others,  than  that  the  wealth  of 
both  worlds  should  be  accumulated  on  our 
shores.  National  wealth  is  not  the  end  of  so 
ciety.  It  may  exist  where  large  classes  are 
depressed  and  wronged.  It  may  undermine  a 
nation's  spirit,  institutions,  and  independence. 
It  can  have  no  value  and  no  sure  foundation, 
until  the  Supremacy  of  the  Rights  of  the  Indi 
vidual  is  the  first  article  of  a  nation's  faith, 
and  until  reverence  for  them  becomes  the  spirit 
of  public  men. 

Perhaps  it  will  be  replied  to  all  which  has 
now  been  said,  that  there  is  an  argument  from 
experience,  which  invalidates  the  doctrines  of 
this  section.  It  may  be  said,  that  human 


RIGHTS.  49 

rights,  notwithstanding  what  has  been  said  of 
their  sacredness,  do  and  must  yield  to  the  exi 
gencies  of  real  life ;  that  there  is  often  a  stern 
necessity  in  human  affairs  to  which  they  bow. 
I  may  be  asked,  whether,  in  the  history  of  na 
tions,  circumstances  do  not  occur,  in  which  the 
rigor  of  the  principles  now  laid  down  must  be 
relaxed ;  whether,  in  seasons  of  imminent 
peril  to*  the  state,  private  rights  must  not  give 
way.  I  may  be  asked,  whether  the  establish 
ment  of  martial  law  and  ?„  dictator  has  not 
sometimes  been  justified  and  demanded  by 
public  danger ;  and  whether,  of  course,  the 
rights  and  liberties  of  the  individual  are  not 
held  at  the  discretion  of  the  state.  I  admit,  in 
reply,  that  extreme  cases  may  occur,  in  which 
the  exercise  of  rights  and  freedom  may  be 
suspended;  but  suspended  only  for  their  ulti 
mate  and  permanent  security.  At  such  times, 
when  the  frantic  fury  of  the  many,  or  the 
usurpations  of  the  few,  interrupt  the  adminis 
tration  of  law,  and  menace  property  and  life, 
society,  threatened  with  ruin,  puts  forth  instinc 
tively  spasmodic  efforts  for  its  own  preservation. 
It  flies  to  an  irresponsible  dictator  for  its  pro 
tection.  But  in  these  cases,  the  great  idea  of 
Rights  predominates  amidst  their  apparent 
subversion.  A  power  above  all  laws  is  con 
ferred,  only  that  the  empire  of  law  may  be 
restored.  Despotic  restraints  are  imposed,  only 
4 


50  RIGHTS. 

that  liberty  may  be  rescued  from  ruin.  All 
rights  are  involved  in  the  safety  of  the  state ; 
and  hence,  in  the  cases  referred  to,  the  safety 
of  the  state  becomes  the  supreme  law.  The 
individual  is  bound  for  a  time  to  forego  his 
freedom,  for  the  salvation  of  institutions,  with 
out  which  liberty  is  but  a  name.  To  argue 
from  such  sacrifices,  that  he  may  be  perma 
nently  made  a  slave,  is  as  great  an  insult  to 
reason  as  to  humanity.  It  may  be  added,  that 
sacrifices,  which  may  be  demanded  for  the 
safety,  are  not  due  from  the  individual  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  state.  The  great  end  of  civil 
society  is  to  secure  rights,  not  'accumulate 
wealth ;  and  to  merge  the  former  in  the  latter 
is  to  turn  political  union  into  degradation  and 
a  scourge.  The  community  is  bound  to  take 
the  rights  of  each  and  all  under  its  guardian 
ship.  It  must  substantiate  its  claim  to  univer 
sal  obedience  by  redeeming  its  pledge  of  uni 
versal  protection.  It  must  immolate  no  man 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  rest.  Its  laws  should 
be  made  for  all,  its  tribunals  opened  to  all.  It 
cannot  without  guilt  abandon  any  of  its  mem 
bers  to  private  oppression,  to  irresponsible 
power. 

We  have  thus  established  the  reality  arid 
sacredness  of  human  rights ;  and  that  slavery 
is  an  infraction  of  these  is  too  plain  to  need 
any  labored  proof.  Slavery  violates,  not  one, 


RIGHTS.  51 

but  all ;  and  violates  them,  not  incidentally,  but 
necessarily,  systematically,  from  its  very  na 
ture.  In  starting  with  the  assumption  that 
the  slave  is  property,  it  sweeps  away  every 
defence  of  human  rights  and  lays  them  in  the 
dust.  Were  it  necessary,  I  might  enumerate 
them,  and  show  how  all  fall  before  this  terrible 
usurpation ;  but  a  few  remarks  will  suffice. 

Slavery  strips  man  of  the  fundamental  right 
to  inquire  into,  consult,  and  seek  his  own  hap 
piness.  His  powers  belong  to  another,  and  for 
another  they  must  be  used.  He  must  form  no 
plans,  engage  in  no  enterprises,  for  bettering 
his  condition.  Whatever  be  his  capacities, 
however  equal  to  great  improvements  of  his 
lot,  he  is  chained  for  life  by  another's  will  to 
the  same  unvaried  toil.  He  is  forbidden  to  do, 
for  himself  or  others,  the  work  for  which  God 
stamped  him  with  his  own  image,  and  endowed 
him  with  his  own  best  gifts. — Again,  the  slave 
is  stripped  of  the  right  to  acquire  property. 
Being  himself  owned,  his  earnings  belong  to 
another.  He  can  possess  nothing  but  by  favor. 
That  right,  on  which  the  development  of  men's 
powers  so  much  depends,  the  right  to  make 
accumulations,  to  gain  exclusive  possessions 
by  honest  industry,  is  withheld.  "  The  slave 
can  acquire  nothing,"  says  one  of  the  slave- 
codes,  "but  what  must  belong  to  his  master ;" 
and  however  this  definition,  which  moves  the 


52  RIGHTS. 

indignation  of  the  free,  may  be  mitigated  by 
favor,  the  spirit  of  it  enters  into  the  very  essence 
of  slavery. — Again,  the  slave  is  stripped  of  his 
right  to  his  wife  and  children.  They  belong 
to  another,  and  may  be  torn  from  him,  one  and 
all,  at  any  moment,  at  his  master's  pleasure.— 
Again,  the  slave  is  stripped  of  the  right  to  the 
culture  of  his  rational  powers.  He  is  in  some 
cases  deprived  by  law  of  instruction,  which  is 
placed  within  his  reach  by  the  improvements 
of  society  and  the  philanthropy  of  the  age. 
He  is  not  allowed  to  toil,  that  his  children  may 
enjoy  a  better  education  than  himself.  The 
most  sacred  right  of  human  nature,  that  of  de 
veloping  his  best  faculties,  is  denied.  Even 
should  it  be  granted,  it  would  be  conceded  as  a 
favor,  and  might  at  any  moment  be  withheld 
by  the  capricious  will  of  another. — Again,  the 
slave  is  deprived  of  the  right  of  self-defence. 
No  injury  from  a  white  man  is  he  suffered  to 
repel,  nor  can  he  seek  redress  from  the  laws  of 
his  country.  If  accumulated  insult  and. wrong 
provoke  him  to  the  slightest  retaliation,  this 
effort  for  self-protection,  allowed  and  com 
mended  to  others,  is  a  crime,  for  which  he  must 
pay  a  fearful  penalty. — Again,  the  slave  is 
stripped  of  the  right  to  be  exempted  from  all 
harm  except  for  wrong-doing.  He  is  subjected 
to  the  lash,  by  those  whom  he  has  never  con 
sented  to  serve,  and  whose  claim  to  him  as 


RIGHTS.  53 

property  we  have  seen  to  be  a  usurpation ; 
and  this  power  of  punishment,  which,  if  justly 
claimed,  should  be  exercised  with  a  fearful 
care,  is  often  delegated  to  men  in  whose  hands 
there  is  a  moral  certainty  of  its  abuse. 

I  will  add  but  one  more  example  of  the  vio 
lation  of  human  rights  by  slavery.  The  slave 
virtually  suffers  the  wrong  of  robbery,  though 
with  utter  unconsciousness  on  the  part  of  those 
who  inflict  it.  It  may,  indeed,  be  generally 
thought,  that,  as  he  is  suffered  to  own  nothing, 
he  cannot  fall,  at  least,  under  this  kind  of  vio 
lence.  But  it  is  not  true  that  he  owns  nothing. 
Whatever  he  may  be  denied  by  man,  he  holds 
from  nature  the  most  valuable  property,  and 
that  from  which  all  other  is  derived,  I  mean 
his  strength.  His  labor  is  his  own,  by  the  gift 
of  that  God  who  nerved  his  arm,  and  gave  him 
intelligence  and  conscience  to  direct  the  use  of 
it  to  his  own  and  others'  happiness.  No  pos 
session  is  so  precious  as  a  man's  force  of  body 
and  mind.  The  exertion  of  this  in  labor  is 
the  great  foundation  and  source  of  property  in 
outward  things.  The  worth  of  articles  of  traffic 
is  measured  by  the  labor  expended  in  their 
production.  To  the  great  mass  of  men,  in  all 
countries,  their  strength  or  labor  is  their  whole 
fortune.  To  seize  on  this  would  be  to  rob 
them  of  their  all.  In  truth,  no  robbery  is  so 
great  as  that  to  which  the  slave  is  habitually 


54  RIGHTS. 

subjected.  To  take  by  force  a  man's  whole 
estate,  the  fruit  of  years  of  toil,  would  by  uni 
versal  consent  be  denounced  as  a  great  wrong ; 
but  what  is  this,  compared  with  seizing  the 
man  himself,  and  appropriating  to  our  use  the 
limbs,  faculties,  strength,  and  labor,  by  which 
all  property  is  won  and  held  fast?  The  right 
of  property  in  outward  things  is  as  nothing, 
compared  with  our  right  to  ourselves.  Were 
the  slave-holder  stripped  of  his  fortune,  he  would 
count  the  violence  slight,  compared  with  what 
he  would  suffer,  were  his  person  seized  and 
devoted  as  a  chattel  to  another's  use.  Let  it 
not  be  said,  that  the  slave  receives  an  equiva 
lent,  that  he  is  fed  and  clothed,  and  is  not, 
therefore,  robbed.  Suppose  another  to  wrest 
from  us  a  valued  possession,  and  to  pay  us  his 
own  price.  Should  we  not  think  ourselves 
robbed  1  Would  not  the  laws  pronounce  the 
invader  a  robber?  Is  it  consistent  with  the 
right  of  property,  that  a  man  should  determine 
the  equivalent  for  what  he  takes  from  his 
neighbour  ?  Especially,  is  it  to  be  hoped,  that 
the  equivalent  due  to  the  laborer  will  be  scru 
pulously  weighed,  when  he  himself  is  held  as 
property,  and  all  his  earnings  are  declared  to 
be  his  master's  ?  So  great  an  infraction  of  hu 
man  right  is  slavery ! 

In  reply  to  these  remarks,  it  may  be   said 
that  the  theory  and  practice  of  slavery  differ; 


RIGHTS.  55 

that  the  rights  of  the  slave  are  not  as  wantonly 
sported  with  as  the  claims  of  the  master  might 
lead  us  to  infer ;  that  some  of  his  possessions 
are  sacred  ;  that  not  a  few  slave-holders  refuse 
to  divorce  husband  and  wife,  to  sever  parent 
and  child ;  and  that,  in  many  cases,  the  power 
of  punishment  is  used  so  reluctantly,  as  to 
encourage  insolence  and  insubordination.  All 
this  I  have  no  disposition  to  deny.  Indeed,  it 
must  be  so.  It  is  not  in  human  nature  to  wink 
wholly  out  of  sight  the  rights  of  a  fellow-crea 
ture.  Degrade  him  as  we  may,  we  cannot 
altogether  forget  his  claims.  In  every  slave- 
country,  there  are,  undoubtedly,  masters  who 
desire  and  purpose  to  respect  these,  to  the  full 
extent  which  the  nature  of  the  relation  will 
allow.  Still,  human  rights  are  denied.  They 
lie  wholly  at  another's  mercy ;  and  we  must 
have  studied  history  in  vain,  if  we  need  be 
told  that  they  will  be  continually  the  prey  of 
this  absolute  power. — The  Evils,  involved  in 
and  flowing  from  the  denial  and  infraction  of 
the  rights  of  the  slave,  will  form  the  subject  of 
a  subsequent  chapter. 


CHAPTER    III. 


EXPLANATIONS. 

I  HAVE  endeavoured  to  show  in  the  preceding 
sections  that  slavery  is  a  violation  of  sacred 
rights,  the  infliction  of  a  great  wrong.  And 
here  a  question  arises.  It  may  be  asked,  whe 
ther,  by  this  language,  I  intend  to  fasten  on  the 
slave-holder  the  charge  of  peculiar  guilt.  On 
this  point  great  explicitness  is  a  duty.  Sym 
pathy  with  the  slave  has  often  degenerated  into 
Injustice  towards  the  master.  I  wish,  then, 
to  be  understood,  that,  in  ranking  slavery 
among  the  greatest  wrongs,  I  speak  of  the  in 
jury  endured  by  the  slave,  and  not  of  the  char 
acter  of  the  master.  These  are  distinct  points. 
The  former  does  not  determine  the  latter.  The 
wrong  is  the  same  to  the  slave,  from  whatever 
motive  or  spirit  it  may  be  inflicted.  But  this 
motive  or  spirit  determines  wholly  the  character 
of  him  who  inflicts  it.  Because  a  great  injury 
is  done  to  another,  it  does  not  follow  that  he 
who  does  it  is  a  depraved  man ;  for  he  may  do 


EXPLANATIONS.  57 

it  unconsciously,  and,  still  more,  may  do  it  in 
the  belief  that  he  confers  a  good.  We  have 
learned  little  of  moral  science  and  of  human 
nature,  if  we  do  not  know  that  guilt  is  to  he 
measured,  not  by  the  outward  act,  but  by  un 
faithfulness  to  conscience  ;  and  that  the  con 
sciences  of  men  are  often  darkened  by  educa 
tion,  and  other  inauspicious  influences.  All 
men  have  partial  consciences,  or  want  compre 
hension  of  some  duties.  All  partake,  in  a  mea 
sure,  of  the  errors  of  the  community  in  which 
they  live.  Some  are  betrayed  into  moral  mis 
takes  by  the  very  force  with  which  conscience 
acts  in  regard  to  some  particular  duty.  As  the 
intellect,  hi  grasping  one  truth,  often  loses  its 
hold  of  others,  and,  by  giving  itself  up  to  one 
idea,  falls  into  exaggeration ;  so  the  moral  sense, 
in  seizing  on  a  particular  exercise  of  philan 
thropy,  forgets  other  duties,  arid  will  even  vio 
late  many  important  precepts,  in  its  passionate 
eagerness  to  carry  one  to  perfection.  Innumer 
able  illustrations  may  be  given  of  the  liableness 
of  men  to  moral  error.  The  practice,  which 
strikes  one  man  xwith  horror,  may  seem  to  an 
other,  who  was  born  and  brought  up  in  the 
midst  of  it,  not  only  innocent,  but  meritorious. 
We  must  judge  others,  not  by  our  light,  but  by 
their  own.  We  must  take  their  place,  and 
consider  what  allowance  we  in  their  position 
might  justly  expect.  Our  ancestors  at  the 


58  EXPLANATIONS. 

North  were  concerned  in  the  slave-trade.  Some 
of  us  can  recollect  individuals  of  the  colored 
race,  who  were  torn  from  Africa,  and  grew  old 
under  our  parental  roofs.  Our  ancestors  com 
mitted  a  deed  now  branded  as  piracy.  We?e 
they,  therefore,  the  offscouring  of  the  earth? 
Were  not  some  of  them  among  the  best  of  their 
times  ?  The  administration  of  religion  in 
almost  all  past  ages  has  been  a  violation  of  the 
sacred  rights  of  conscience.  How  many  sects 
have  persecuted  and  shed  blood  !  Were  their 
members,  therefore,  monsters  of  depravity? 
The  history  of  our  race  is  made  up  of  wrongs, 
many  of  which  were  committed  without  a  sus 
picion  of  their  true  character,  and  many  from 
an  urgent  sense  of  duty.  A  man,  born  among 
slaves,  accustomed  to  this  relation  from  his 
birth,  taught  its  necessity  by  venerated  parents, 
associating  it  with  all  whom  he  reveres,  and 
too  familiar  with  its  evils  to  see  and  feel  their 
magnitude,  can  hardly  be  expected  to  look  on 
slavery  as  it  appears  to  more  impartial  and 
distant  observers.  Let  it  not  be  said,  that, 
when  new  light  is  offered  him,  he  is  criminal  in 
rejecting  it.  Are  we  all  willing  to  receive  new 
light?  Can  we  wonder  that  such  a  man  should 
be  slow  to  be- convinced  of  the  criminality  of  an 
abuse  sanctioned  by  prescription,  and  which 
has  so  interwoven  itself  with  all  the  habits, 
employments,  and  economy  of  life,  that  he  can 


EXPLANATIONS.  59 

hardly  conceive  of  the  existence  of  society 
without  this  all-pervading  element  ?  May  he 
not  be  true  to  his  convictions  of  duty  in  other 
relations,  though  he  grievously  err  in  this  ?  If, 
indeed,  through  cupidity  and  selfishness,  he 
stifle  the  monitions  of  conscience,  warp  his 
judgment,  and  repel  the  light,  he  incurs  great 
guilt.  If  he  want  virtue  to  resolve  on  doing 
right,  though  at  the  loss  of  every  slave,  he  in 
curs  great  guilt.  But  who  of  us  can  look  into 
his  heart?  To  whom  are  the  secret  workings 
there  revealed  ? 

Still  more.  There  are  masters  who  have 
thrown  off  the  natural  prejudices  of  their  posi 
tion,  who  see  slavery  as  it  is,  and  who  hold  the 
slave  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  from  disinterested 
considerations  ;  and  these  deserve  great  praise. 
They  deplore  and  abhor  the  institution;  but 
believing  that  partial  emancipation,  in  the 
present  condition  of  society,  would  bring  un 
mixed  evil  on  bond  and  free,  they  think  them 
selves  bound  to  continue  the  relation,  until  it 
shall  be  dissolved  by  comprehensive  and  sys 
tematic  measures  of  the  state.  There  are  many 
of  them  who  would  shudder  as  much  as  we  at 
reducing ;a  freeman  to  bondage,  but  who  are 
appalled  by  what  seem  to  them  the  perils  and 
difficulties  of  liberating  multitudes,  born  and 
brought  up  to  that  condition.  There  are  many, 
who,  nominally  holding  the  slave  as  property, 


60  EXPLANATIONS. 

still  hold  him  for  his  own  good  and  for  the 
public  order,  and  would  blush  to  retain  him  on 
other  grounds.  Are  such  men  to  be  set  down 
among  the  unprincipled  ?  Am  I  told  that  by 
these  remarks  I  extenuate  slavery?  I  reply, 
slavery  is  still  a  heavy  yoke,  and  strips  man 
of  his  dearest  rights,  be  the  master's  character 
what  it  may.  Slavery  is  not  less  a  curse,  be 
cause  long  use  may  have  blinded  most,  who 
support  it,  to  its  evils.  Its  influence  is  still 
blighting,  though  conscientiously  upheld.  Ab 
solute  monarchy  is  still  a  scourge,  though  amor'g 
despots  there  have  been  good  men.  It  is  possi 
ble  to  abhor  and  oppose  bad  institutions,  and 
yet  to  abstain  from  indiscriminate  condemnation 
of  those  who  cling  to  them,  and  even  to  see  in 
their  ranks  greater  virtue  than  in  ourselves.  It 
is  true,  and  ought  to  be  cheerfully  acknow 
ledged,  that  in  the  Slave-holding  States  may  be 
found  some  of  the  greatest  names  of  our  history, 
and,  what  is  still  more  important,  bright  exam 
ples  of  private  virtue  and  Christian  love. 

There  is,  however,  there  must  be,  in  slave- 
holding  communities,  a  large  class  which  can 
not  be  too  severely  condemned.  There  are 
many,  we  fear,  very  many,  who  hold  their 
fellow-creatures  in  bondage  from  selfish,  base 
motives.  They  hold  the  slave  for  gain,  whe 
ther  justly  or  unjustly  they  neither  ask  nor 
care.  They  cling  to  him  as  property,  and  have 


EXPLANATIONS.  61 

no  faith  in  the  principles  which  will  dimmish  a 
man's  wealth.  They  hold  him,  not  for  his  own 
good  or  the  safety  of  the  state,  but  with  pre 
cisely  the  same  views  with  which  they  hold  a 
laboring  horse,  that  is,  for  the  profit  which  they 
can  wring  from  him.  They  will  not  hear  a 
word  of  his  wrongs ;  for,  wronged  or  not,  they 
will  not  let  him  go.  He  is  their  property,  and 
they  mean  not  to  be  poor  for  righteousness' 
sake.  Such  a  class  there  undoubtedly  is  among 
slave-holders ;  how  large,  their  own  consciences 
must  determine.  We  are  sure  of  it ;  for  under 
such  circumstances  human  nature  will  and 
must  come  to  this  mournful  result.  Now,  to 
men  of  this  spirit,  the  explanations  we  have 
made  do  in  no  degree  apply.  Such  men  ought 
to  tremble  before  the  rebukes  of  outraged  hu 
manity  and  indignant  virtue.  Slavery  upheld 
for  gain  is  a  great  crime.  He,  who  has  nothing 
to  urge  against  emancipation,  but  that  it  will 
make  him  poorer,  is  bound  to  Immediate  Eman 
cipation.  He  has  no  excuse  for  wresting  from 
his  brethren  their  rights.  The  plea  of  benefit 
to  the  slave  and  the  state  avails  him  nothing. 
He  extorts,  by  the  lash,  that  labor  to  which  he 
has  no  claim,  through  a  base  selfishness.  Every 
morsel  of  food,  thus  forced  from  the  injured, 
ought  to  be  bitterer  than  gall.  His  gold  is  can 
kered.  The  sweat  of  the  slave  taints  the  lux 
uries  for  which  it  streams.  Better  were  it  for 


62  EXPLANATIONS. 

the  selfish  wrong-doer  of  whom  I  speak,  to  live 
as  the  slave,  to  clothe  himself  in  the  slave's 
raiment,  to  eat  the  slave's  coarse  food,  to  till 
his  fields  with  his  own  hands,  than  to  pamper 
himself  by  day,  and  pillow  his  head  on  down 
at  night,  at  the  cost  of  a  wantonly  injured  fel 
low-creature.  No  fellow-creature  can  be  so 
injured  without  taking  terrible  vengeance.  He 
is  terribly  avenged  even  now.  The  blight 
which  falls  on  the  soul  of  the  wrong-doer,  the 
desolation  of  his  moral  nature,  is  a  more  terri 
ble  calamity  than  he  inflicts.  In  deadening  his 
moral  feelings,  he  dies  to  the  proper  happiness 
of  a  man.  In  hardening  his  heart  against  his 
fellow-creatures,  he  sears  it  to  all  true  joy.  In 
shutting  his  ear  against  the  voice  of  justice,  he 
shuts  out  all  the  harmonies  of  the  universe, 
and  turns  the  voice  of  God  within  him  into 
rebuke.  He  may  prosper,  indeed,  and  hold 
faster  the  slave  by  whom  he  prospers;  but  he 
rivets  heavier  and  more  ignominious  chains  on 
his  own  soul  than  he  lays  on  others.  No  pun 
ishment  is  so  terrible  as  prosperous  guilt.  No 
fiend,  exhausting  on  us  all  his  power  of  torture, 
is  so  fearful  as  an  oppressed  fellow-creature. 
The  cry  of  the  oppressed,  unheard  on  earth,  is 
heard  in  heaven.  God  is  just,  and  if  justice 
reign,  then  the  unjust  must  terribly  suffer. 
Then  no  being  can  profit  by  evil-doing.  Then 
all  the  laws  of  the  universe  are  ordinances 


EXPLANATIONS.  63 

against  guilt.  Then  every  enjoyment  gained 
by  wrong-doing  will  be  turned  into  a  curse. 
No  laws  of  nature  are  so  irrepealable  as  that 
law  which  binds  guilt  and  misery.  God  is 
just.  Then  all  the  defences,  which  the  op 
pressor  rears  against  the  consequences  of  wrong 
doing,  are  vain,  as  vain  as  would  be  his  striv 
ings  to  arrest  by  his  single  arm  the  ocean  or 
whirlwind.  He  may  disarm  the  slave.  Can 
he  disarm  that  slave's  Creator?  He  can  crush 
the  spirit  of  insurrection  in  a  fellow-being. 
Can  he  crush  the  awful  spirit  of  justice  and 
retribution  in  the  Almighty  ?  He  can  still  the 
murmur  of  discontent  in  his  victim.  Can  he 
silence  that  voice  which  speaks  in  thunder,  and 
is  to  break  the  sleep  of  the  grave?  Can  he 
always  still  the  reproving,  avenging  voice  in  his 
own  breast? 

I  know  it  will  be  said,  "  You  would  make 
us  poor."  Be  poor,  then,  and  thank  God  for 
your  honest  poverty.  Better  be  poor  than  un 
just.  Better  beg  than  steal.  Better  live  in  an 
almshouse,  better  die,  than  trample  on  a  fellow- 
creature  and  reduce  him  to  a  brute,  for  selfish 
gratification.  What!  Have  we  yet  to  learn 
that  "  it  profits  us  nothing  to  gain  the  whole 
world,  and  lose  our  souls?" 

Let  it  not  be  replied,  in  scorn,  that  we  of  the 
North,  notorious  for  love  of  money,  and  given 
to  selfish  calculation,  are  not  the  people  to  call 


64  EXPLANATIONS. 

others  to  resign  their  wealth.  I  have  no  desire 
to  shield  the  North  ;  though  I  might  say,  with 
truth,  that  a  community,  more  generally  con 
trolled  by  the  principles  of  morality  and  reli 
gion,  cannot  be  found.  We  have,  without 
doubt,  a  great  multitude,  who,  were  they 
slave-holders,  would  sooner  die  than  relax  their 
iron  grasp,  than  yield  their  property  in  men  to 
justice  and  the  commands  of  God.  We  have 
those  who  would  fight  against  abolition,  if  by 
this  measure  the  profit  of  their  intercourse  with 
the  South  should  be  materially  impaired.  The 
present  excitement  among  us  is,  in  part,  the 
working  of  mercenary  principles.  But  because 
the  North  joins  hands  with  the  South,  shall 
iniquity  go  unpunished  or  unrebuked?  Can 
the  league  of  the  wicked,  the  revolt  of  worlds, 
repeal  the  everlasting  law  of  heaven  and  earth  ? 
Has  God's  throne  fallen  before  Mammon's? 
Must  duty  find  no  voice,  no  organ,  because 
corruption  is  universally  diffused  ?  Is  not  this 
a  fresh  motive  to  solemn  warning,  that,  every 
where,  Northward  and  Southward,  the  rights 
of  human  beings  are  held  so  cheap,  in  compar 
ison  with  worldly  gain  ? 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE   EVILS   OP  SLAVERY. 

THE  subject  of  this  section  is  painful  and 
repulsive.  We  must  not,  however,  turn  away 
from  the  contemplation  of  human  sufferings 
and  guilt.  Evil  is  permitted  by  the  Creator, 
that  we  should  strive  against  it,  in  faith,  and 
hope,  and  charity.  We  must  never  quail  be 
fore  it  because  of  its  extent  and  duration,  never 
feel  as  if  its  power  were  greater  than  that  of 
goodness.  It  is  meant  to  call  forth  deep  sym 
pathy  with  human  nature,  and  unwearied  sa 
crifices  for  human  redemption.  One  great  part 
of  the  mission  of  every  man  on  earth  is  to  con 
tend  with  evil  in  some  of  its  forms ;  and  there 
are  some  evils  so  dependent  on  opinion,  that 
every  man,  in  judging  and  reproving  them 
faithfully,  does  something  towards  their  removal. 
Let  us  not,  then,  shrink  from  the  contemplation 
of  human  sufferings.  Even  sympathy,  if  we 
have  nothing  more  to  offer,  is  a  tribute  accepta 
ble  to  the  Universal  Father. — On  this  topic  ex- 
5 


66  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

aggeration  should  be  conscientiously  shunned ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  humanity  requires  that 
the  whole  truth  should  be  honestly  spoken. 

In  treating  of  the  evils  of  slavery,  I,  of 
course,  speak  of  its  general,  not  universal  ef 
fects,  of  its  natural  tendencies,  not  unfailing 
results.  There  are  the  same  natural  differences 
among  the  bond  as  the  free,  and  there  is  a  great 
diversity  in  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
are  placed.  The  house-slave,  selected  for  abil 
ity  and  faithfulness,  placed  amidst  the  habits, 
accommodations,  and  improvements  of  civilized 
life,  admitted  to  a  degree  of  confidence  and 
familiarity,  and  requiting  these  privileges  with 
attachment,  is  almost  necessarily  more  enlight 
ened  and  respectable  than  the  field-slave,  who 
is  confined  to  monotonous  toils,  and  to  the  so 
ciety  and  influences  of  beings  as  degraded  as 
himself.  The  mechanics  in  this  class  are  sen 
sibly  benefited  by  occupations  which  give  a 
higher  action  to  the  mind.  Among  the  bond, 
as  the  free,  will  be  found  those  to  whom  nature 
seems  partial,  and  who  are  carried  almost  in 
stinctively  towards  what  is  good.  I  speak  of 
the  natural,  general  influences  of  slavery. 
Here,  as  everywhere  else,  there  are  exceptions 
to  the  rule,  and  exceptions  which  multiply  with 
the  moral  improvements  of  the  community  in 
which  the  slave  is  found.  But  these  do  not 
determine  the  general  character  of  the  institu- 


THE    EVILS    OP    SLAVERY.  67 

tion.  It  has  general  tendencies  founded  in  its 
very  nature,  and  which  predominate  vastly 
wherever  it  exists.  These  tendencies  it  is  my 
present  purpose  to  unfold. 

1.  The  first  rank  among  the  evils  of  slavery 
must  be  given  to  its  Moral  influence.  This 
is  throughout  debasing.  Common  language 
teaches  this.  We  can  say  nothing  more  insult 
ing  of  another,  than  that  he  is  Slavish.  To 
possess  the  spirit  of  a  slave  is  to  have  sunk  to 
the  lowest  depths.  We  can  apply  to  slavery 
no  worse  name  than  its  own.  Men  have  al 
ways  shrunk  instinctively  from  this  state,  as 
the  most  degraded.  No  punishment,  save 
death,  has  been  more  dreaded,  and  to  avoid  it 
death  has  often  been  endured. 

In  expressing  the  moral  influence  of  slavery 
the  first  and  most  obvious  remark  is,  that  it 
destroys  the  proper  consciousness  and  spirit  of 
a  Man.  The  slave,  regarded  and  treated  as 
property,  bought  and  sold  like  a  brute,  denied 
the  rights  of  humanity,  unprotected  against 
insult,  made  a  tool,  and  systematically  subdued, 
that  he  may  be  a  manageable,  useful  tool,  how* 
can  he  help  regarding  himself  as  fallen  below 
his  race?  How  must  his  spirit  be  crushed! 
How  can  he  respect  himself?  He  becomes 
bowed  to  Servility.  This  word,  borrowed  from 
his  condition,  expresses  the  ruin  wrought  by 


68  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

slavery  within  him.  The  idea,  that  he  was 
made  for  his  own  virtue  and  happiness,  scarcely 
dawns  on  his  mind.  To  be  an  instrument  of 
the  physical,  material  good  of  another,  whose 
will  is  his  highest  law,  he  is  taught  to  regard 
as  the  great  purpose  of  his  being.  Here  lies 
the  evil  of  slavery.  Its  whips,  imprisonments, 
and  even  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage 
from  Africa  to  America,  these  are  not  to  be 
named,  in  comparison  with  this  extinction  of 
the  proper  consciousness  of  a  human  being, 
with  the  degradation  of  a  man  into  a  brute. 

It  may  be  said,  that  the  slave  is  used  to  his 
yoke ;  that  his  sensibilities  are  blunted  ;  that  he 
receives,  without  a  pang  or  a  thought,  the 
treatment  which  would  sting  other  men  to  mad 
ness.  And  to  what  does  this  apology  amount  ? 
It  virtually  declares,  that  slavery  has  done  its 
perfect  work,  has  quenched  the  spirit  of  human 
ity,  that  the  Man  is  dead  within  the  Slave.  Is 
slavery,  therefore,  no  wrong?  It  is  not,  how 
ever,  true,  that  this  work  of  debasement  is  ever 
so  effectually  done  as  to  extinguish  all  feeling. 
Man  is  too  grtat  a  creature  to  be  wholly  ruined 
1)y  man.  When  he  seems  dead  he  only  sleeps. 
There  are  occasionally  some  sullen  murmurs 
in  the  calm  of  slavery,  showing  that  life  still 
beats  in  the  soul,  that  the  idea  of  Rights  can 
not  be  wholly  effaced  from  the  human  being. 

It  would  be  too  painful,  and  it  is  not  needed. 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  69 

to  detail  the  processes  by  which  the  spirit  is 
broken  in  slavery,  I  refer  to  one  only,  the 
selling  of  slaves.  The  practice  of  exposing 
fellow-creatures  for  sale,  of  having  markets  for 
men  as  for  cattle,  of  examining  the  limbs  and 
muscles  of  a  man  and  a  woman  as  of  a  brute, 
of  putting  human  beings  under  the  hammer  of 
an  auctioneer,  and  delivering  them,  like  any 
other  articles  of  merchandise,  to  the  highest 
bidder,  all  this  is  such  an  insult  to  our  common 
nature,  and  so  infinitely  degrading  to  the  poor 
victim,  that  it  is  hard  to  conceive  of  its  exist 
ence,  except  in  a  barbarous  country. 

That  slavery  should  be  most  unpropitious  to 
the  slave  as  a  moral  being  will  be  farther  ap 
parent,  if  we  consider  that  his  condition  is 
throughout  a  Wrong,  and  that  consequently  it 
must  tend  to  unsettle  all  his  notions  of  duty. 
The  violation  of  his  own  rights,  to  which  he 
is  inured  from  birth,  must  throw  confusion  over 
his  ideas  of  all  human  rights.  He  cannot  com 
prehend  them ;  or,  if  he  does,  how  can  he  re 
spect  them,  seeing  them,  as  he  does,  perpetually 
trampled  on  in  his  own  person  1  The  injury  to 
the  character  from  living  in  an  atmosphere  of 
wrong,  we  can  all  understand.  To  live  in  a 
state  of  society,  of  which  injustice  is  the  chief 
and  all-pervading  element,  is  too  severe  a  trial 
for  human  nature,  especially  when  no  means 
are  used  to  counteract  its  influence. 


70  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

Accordingly,  the  most  common  distinctions 
of  morality  are  faintly  apprehended  by  the 
slave.  Respect  for  property,  that  fundamental 
law  of  civil  society,  can  hardly  be  instilled 
into  him.  His  dishonesty  is  proverbial.  Theft 
from  his  master  passes  with  him  for  no  crime. 
A  system  of  force  is  generally  found  to  drive  to 
fraud.  How  necessarily  will  this  be  the  result 
of  a  relation  in  which  force  is  used  to  extort 
from  a  man  his  labor,  his  natural  property, 
without  any  attempt  to  win  his  consent  tj  Can 
we  wonder  that  the  uneducated  conscience  of 
the  man  who  is  daily  wronged,  should  allow 
him  in  reprisals  to  the  extent  of  his  power? 
Thus  the  primary  social  virtue,  justice,  is  un 
dermined  in  the  slave. 

That  the  slave  should  yield  himself  to  intem 
perance,  licentiousness,  and,  in  general,  to  sen 
sual  excess,  we  must  also  expect.  Doomed  to 
live  for  the  physical  indulgences  of  others,  un 
used  to  any  pleasures  but  those  of  sense,  strip 
ped  of  self-respect,  and  having  nothing  to  gain 
in  life,  how  can  he  be  expected  to  govern  him 
self?  How  naturally,  I  had  almost  said  neces 
sarily,  does  he  become  the  creature  of  sensa 
tion,  of  passion,  of  the  present  moment !  What 
aid  does  the  future  give  him  in  withstanding 
desire  ?  That  better  condition,  for  which  other 
men  postpone  the  cravings  of  appetite,  never 
opens  before  him.  The  sense  of  character,  the 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  71 

power  of  opinion,  another  restraint  on  the  free, 
can  do  little  or  nothing  to  rescue  so  abject  a 
class  from  excess  and  debasement.  In  truth, 
power  over  himself  is  the  last  virtue  we  should 
expect  in  the  slave,  when  we  think  of  him  as 
subjected  to  absolute  power,  and  made  to  move 
passively  from  the  impulse  of  a  foreign  will 
He  is  trained  to  cowardice,  and  cowardice 
links  itself  naturally  with  low  vices.  Idleness 
to  his  apprehension  is  paradise,  for  he  works 
without  hope  of  reward.  Thus  slavery  robs 
him  of  moral  force,  and  prepares  him  to  fall  a 
prey  to  appetite  and  passion. 

That  the  slave  finds  in  his  condition  little 
nutriment  for  the  social  virtues  we  shall  easily 
understand,  if  we  consider  that  his  chief  rela 
tions  are  to  an  absolute  master,  and  to  the 
companions  of  his  degrading  bondage :  that  is, 
to  a  being  who  wrongs  him,  and  to  associates 
whom  he  cannot  honor,  whom  he  sees  debased. 
His  dependence  on  his  owner  loosens  his  ties 
to  all  other  beings.  He  has  no  country  to  love, 
no  family  to  call  his  own,  no  objects  of  public 
utility  to  espouse,  no  impulse  to  generous  exer 
tion.  The  relations,  dependences,  and  respon 
sibilities,  by  which  Providence  forms  the  soul 
to  a  deep,  disinterested  love,  are  almost  struck 
out  of  his  lot.  An  arbitrary  rule,  a  foreign, 
irresistible  will,  taking  him  out  of  his  own 
hands,  and  placing  him  beyond  the  natural 


2  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

influences  of  society,  extinguishes  in  a  great 
degree  the  sense  of  what  is  due  to  himself,  and 
to  the  human  family  around  him. 

The  effects  of  slavery  on  the  character  are 
so  various  that  this  part  of  the  discussion 
might  be  greatly  extended;  but  I  will  touch 
only  on  one  topic.  Let  us  turn,  for  a  moment, 
to  the  great  Motive  by  which  the  slave  is  made 
to  labor.  Labor,  in  one  form  or  another,  is 
appointed  by  God  for  man's  improvement  and 
happiness,  and  absorbs  the  chief  part  of  human 
life,  so  that  the  Motive  which  excites  to  it  has 
immense  influence  on  character.  It  determines 
very  much,  whether  life  shall  serve  or  fail  of  its 
end.  The  man,  who  works  from  honorable 
motives,  from  domestic  affections,  from  desire 
of  a  condition  which  will  open  to  him  greater 
happiness  and  usefulness,  finds  in  labor  an 
exercise  and  invigoration  of  virtue.  The  day- 
laborer,  who  earns,  with  horny  hand  and  the 
sweat  of  his  face,  coarse  food  for  a  wife  and 
children  whom  he  loves,  is  raised,  by  this  gen 
erous  motive,  to  true  dignity ;  and,  though 
wanting  the  refinements  of  life,  is  a  nobler  be 
ing  than  those  who  think  themselves  absolved 
by  wealth  from  serving  others.  Now  the  slave's 
labor  brings  no  dignity,  is  an  exercise  of  no 
virtue,  but  throughout  a  degradation ;  so  that 
one  of  God's  chief  provisions  for  human  im 
provement  becomes  a  curse.  The  motive  from 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  73 

which  he  acts  debases  him.  It  is  the  Whip. 
It  is  corporal  punishment.  It  is  physical 
pain  inflicted  by  a  fellow-creature.  Undoubt 
edly  labor  is  mitigated  to  the  slave,  as  to  all 
men,  by  habit.  But  this  is  not  the  motive. 
Take  away  the  whip,  and  he  would  be  idle 
His  labor  brings  no  new  comforts  to  wife  or 
child.  The  motive  which  spurs  him  is  one  by 
which  it  is  base  to  be  swayed.  Stripes  are,  in 
deed,  resorted  to  by  civil  government,  when  no 
other  consideration  will  deter  from  crime ;  but 
he,  who  is  deterred  from  wrong-doing  by  the 
whipping-post,  is  among  the  most  fallen  of  his 
race.  To  work  in  sight  of  the  whip,  under 
menace  of  blows,  is  to  be  exposed  to  perpetual 
insult  and  degrading  influences.  Every  motion 
of  the  limbs,  which  such  a  menace  urges,  is  a 
wound  to  the  soul.  How  hard  must  it  be  for 
a  man,  who  lives  under  the  lash,  to  respect  him 
self!  When  this  motive  is  substituted  for  all 
the  nobler  ones  which  God  ordains,  is  it  not 
almost  necessarily  death  to  the  better  and 
higher  sentiments  of  our  nature  ?  It  is  the  part 
of  a  man  to  despise  pain  in  comparison  with 
disgrace,  to  meet  it  fearlessly  in  well-doing,  to 
perform  the  work  of  life  from  other  impulses. 
It  is  the  part  of  a  brute  to  be  governed  by  the 
whip.  Even  the  brute  is  seen  to  act  from 
more  generous  incitements.  The  horse  of  a 
noble  breed  will  not  endure  the  lash.  Shall  we 
sink  man  below  the  horse  ? 


74  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

Let  it  not  be  said)  that  blows  are  seldom  in 
flicted.  Be  it  so.  We  are  glad  to  know  it. 
But  this  is  not  the  point.  The  complaint  now 
urged  is  not  of  the  amount  of  the  pain  inflicted, 
but  of  its  influence  on  the  character,  when 
made  the  great  motive  to  human  labor.  It  is 
not  the  endurance,  but  the  dread  of  the  whip, 
it  is  the  substitution  of  this  for  natural  and 
honorable  motives  to  action,  which  we  abhor 
and  condemn.  It  matters  not,  whether  few  or 
many  are  whipped.  A  blow  given  to  a  single 
slave  is  a  stripe  on  the  souls  of  all  who  see  or 
hear  it.  It  makes  all  abject,  servile.  It  is  not 
the  wound  given  to  the  flesh,  of  which  we  now 
complain.  Scar  the  back,  and  you  have  done 
nothing,  compared  with  the  wrong  done  to  the 
soul.  You  have  either  stung  that  soul  with 
infernal  passions,  with  thirst  for  revenge;  or, 
what  -perhaps  is  more  discouraging,  you  have 
broken  and  brutalized  it.  The  human  spirit 
has  perished  under  your  hands,  as  far  as  it  can 
be  destroyed  by  human  force. 

I  know  it  is  sometimes  said,  in  reply  to  these 
remarks,  that  all  men,  as  well  as  slaves,  act 
from  necessity ;  that  we  have  masters  in  hun 
ger  and  thirst ;  that  no  man  loves  labor  for 
itself ;  that  the  pains,  which  are  inflicted  on  us 
by  the  laws  of  nature,  the  elements,  and  sea 
sons,  are  so  many  lashes  driving  us  to  our 
daily  task.  Be  it  so.  Still  the  two  cases  are 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  75 

essentially  different.     The  necessity  laid  on  us 
by  natural  wants  is  most  kindly  in  its  purpose. 
It  is  meant  to  awaken  all  our  faculties,  to  give 
full  play  to  body  and  mind,  and  thus  to  give 
us  a  new  consciousness  of  the  powers  derived 
to  us  from  God.     We  are,  indeed,  subjected  to 
a  stern  nature  ;  we  are  placed  amidst  warring 
elements,  scorching  heat,  withering  cold,  storms, 
blights,  sickness,  death.     And  what  is  the  de 
sign  ?     To  call   forth  our  powers,  to  lay  on  us 
great  duties,  to  make  us  nobler  beings.     We 
are  placed  in  the  midst  of  a  warring  nature, 
not  to  yield  to  it,  not  to  be  its  slaves,  but  to 
conquer  it,  to  make  it  the  monument  of  our 
skill  and  strength,  to  arm  ourselves  with  its 
elements,  its  heat,  winds,  vapors,  and  mineral 
treasures,  to  find,  in  its  painful  changes,  occa 
sions   and   incitements   to   invention,   courage, 
endurance,  mutual  and  endearing  dependences, 
and  religious  trust.    The  development  of  human 
nature,  in  all  its  powers  and  affections,  is  the 
end  of  that  hard  necessity  which  is  laid  on  us 
by  nature.    Is  this  ony  and  the  same  thing  with 
the  whip  laid  on  the  slave  ?    Still  more ;  it  is  the 
design  of  nature,  that,  by  energy,  skill,  and  self- 
denial,  we  should  so  far  anticipate  our  wants  or 
accumulate  supplies,  as  to  be  able  to  diminish 
the  toil  of  the  hands,  and  to  mix  with  it  more 
intellectual  and    liberal  occupations.      Nature 
does  not  lay  on  us  an  unchangeable  task,  but 


76  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

one  which  we  may  all  lighten  by  honest,  self- 
denying  industry.  Thus  she  invites  us  to 
throw  off  her  yoke,  and  to  make  her  our  ser 
vant.  Is  this  the  invitation  which  the  master 
gives  his  slaves?  Is  it  his  aim  to  awaken  the 
powers  of  those  on  whom  he  lays  his  burdens, 
and  to  give  them  increasing  mastery  over  him 
self?  Is  it  not  his  aim  to  curb  their  wills, 
break  their  spirits,  and  shut  them  up  forever 
in  the  same  narrow  and  degrading  work  ?  Oh, 
let  not  nature  be  profaned,  let  not  her  parental 
rule  be  blasphemed,  by  comparing  with  her 
the  slave-holder ! 

2.  Having  considered  the  moral  influence 
of  slavery.  I  proceed  to  consider  its  Intellectual 
influence,  another  great  topic.  God  gave  us 
intellectual  power  that  it  should  be  cultivated  ; 
and  a  system  which  degrades  it,  and  can  only 
be  upheld  by  its  depression,  opposes  one  of  his 
most  benevolent  designs.  Reason  is  God's 
image  in  man,  and  the  capacity  of  acquiring 
truth  is  among  his  best  inspirations.  To  call 
forth  the  intellect  is  a  principal  purpose  of  the 
circumstances  in  which  we  are  placed,  of  the 
child's  connection  with  the  parent,  and  of  the 
necessity  laid  on  him  in  maturer  life  to  provide 
for  himself  and  others.  The  education  of  the 
intellect  is  not  confined  to  youth ;  but  the  vari 
ous  experience  of  later  years  does  vastly  more 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  77 

than  books  and  colleges  to  ripen  and  invigorate 
the  faculties. 

Now  the  whole  lot  of  the  slave  is  fitted  to 
keep  his  mind  in  childhood  and  bondage. 
Though  living  in  a  land  of  light,  few  beams 
find  their  way  to  his  benighted  understanding. 
No  parent  feels  the  duty  of  instructing  him. 
No  teacher  is  provided  for  him,  but  the  Driver, 
who  breaks  him,  almost  in  childhood,  to  the 
servile  tasks  which  are  to  fill  up  his  life.  No 
book  is  opened  to  his  youthful  curiosity.  As 
he  advances  in  years,  no  new  excitements  sup 
ply  the  place  of  teachers.  He  is  not  cast  on 
himself,  made  to  depend  on  his  own  energies. 
No  stirring  prizes  in  life  awaken  his  dormant 
faculties.  Fed  and  clothed  by  others  like  a 
child,  directed  in  every  step,  doomed  for  life  to 
a  monotonous  round  of  labor,  he  lives  and  dies 
without  a  spring  to  his  powers,  often  brutally 
unconscious  of  his  spiritual  nature.  Nor  is 
this  all.  When  benevolence  would  approach 
him  with  instruction,  it  is  repelled.  He  is  not 
allowed  to  be  taught.  The  light  is  jealously 
barred  out.  The  voice,  which  would  speak  to 
him  as  a  man,  is  put  to  silence.  He  must  not 
even  be  enabled  to  read  the  Word  of  God. 
His  immortal  spirit  is  systematically  crushed. 

It  is  said,  I  know,  that  the  ignorance  of  the 
slave  is  necessary  to  the  security  of  the  master, 
and  the  quiet  of  the  state;  and  this  is  said  truly. 


78  THE   EVILS   OF    SLAVERY. 

Slavery  and  knowledge  cannot  live  together. 
To  enlighten  the  slave  is  to  break  his  chain. 
To  make  him  harmless,  he  must  he  kept  blind. 
He  cannot  be  left  to  read,  in  an  enlightened  age, 
without  endangering  his  master ;  for  what  can 
he  read  which  will  not  give,  at  least,  some  hint 
of  his  wrongs  ?  Should  his  eye  chance  to  fall 
on  the  "  Declaration  of  Independence,"  how 
would  the  truth  glare  on  him,  that  "  All  men 
are  born  free  and  equal !"  All  knowledge  fur 
nishes  arguments  against  slavery.  From  every 
subject  light  would  break  forth  to  reveal  his 
inalienable  and  outraged  rights.  The  very 
exercise  of  his  intellect  would  give  him  the 
consciousness  of  being  made  for  something 
more  than  a  slave.  I  agree  to  the  necessity 
laid  on  his  master  to  keep  him  in  darkness. 
And  what  stronger  argument  against  slavery 
can  be  conceived  ?  It  compels  the  master  to 
degrade  systematically  the  mind  of  the  slave ; 
to  war  against  human  intelligence;  to  resist 
that  improvement  which  is  the  end  of  the  Cre 
ator.  "  Woe  to  him  that  taketh  away  the  key 
of  knowledge  !"  To  kill  the  body  is  a  great 
crime.  The  spirit  we  cannot  kill,  but  we  can 
bury  it  in  deathlike  lethargy;  and  is  this  a 
light  crime  in  the  sight  of  its  Maker  ? 

Let  it  not  be  said,  that  almost  everywhere 
the  laboring  classes  are  doomed  to  ignorance, 
deprived  of  the  means  of  instruction.  The 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  79 

intellectual  advantages  of  the  laboring  freeman, 
who  is  intrusted  with  the  care  of  himself,  raise 
him  far  above  the  slave;  and,  accordingly, 
superior  minds  are  constantly  seen  to  issue 
from  the  less  educated  classes.  Besides,  in  free 
communities,  philanthropy  is  not  forbidden  to 
labor  for  the  improvement  of  the  ignorant. 
The  obligation  of  the  prosperous  and  instructed 
to  elevate  their  less  favored  brethren  is  taught, 
and  not  taught  in  vain.  Benevolence  is  making 
perpetual  encroachments  on  the  domain  of  igno 
rance  and  crime.  In  communities,  on  the  other 
hand,  cursed  with  slavery,  half  the  population, 
sometimes  more,  are  given  up,  intentionally 
and  systematically,  to  hopeless  ignorance.  To 
raise  this  mass  to  intelligence  and  self-govern 
ment  is  a  crime.  The  sentence  of  perpetual 
degradation  is  passed  on  a  large  portion  of  the 
human  race.  In  this  view,  how  great  the  ill- 
desert  of  slavery  ! 

3.  \  proceed,  now,  to  the  Domestic  influences 
of  slavery ;  and  here  we  must  look  for  a  dark 
picture.  Slavery  virtually  dissolves  the  domes 
tic  relations.  It  ruptures  the  most  sacred  ties 
on  earth.  It  violates  home.  It  lacerates  the 
best  affections.  The  domestic  relations  precede, 
and,  in  our  present  existence,  are  worth  more 
than  all  our  other  social  ties.  They  give  the  first 
throb  to  the  heart,  and  unseal  the  deep  foun- 


SO  THE   EVILS   OF    SLAVERY. 

tains  of  its  love.  Home  is  the  chief  school  of 
human  virtue.  Its  responsibilities,  joys,  sor 
rows,  smiles,  tears,  hopes,  and  solicitudes,  form 
the  chief  interests  of  human  life.  Go  where  a 
man  may,  home  is  the  centre  to  which  his  heart 
turns.  The  thought  of  his  home  nerves  his 
arm  and  lightens  his  toil.  For  that  his  heart 
yearns,  when  he  is  far  off.  There  he  garners 
up  his  best  treasures.  God  has  ordained  for  all 
men  alike  the  highest  earthly  happiness,  in 
providing  for  all  the  sanctuary  of  home.  But 
the  slave's  home  does  not  merit  the  name.  To 
him  it  is  no  sanctuary.  It  is  open  to  violation, 
insult,  outrage.  His  children  belong  to  another, 
are  provided  for  by  another,  are  disposed  of  by 
another.  The  most  precious  burden  with 
which  the  heart  can  be  charged,  the  happiness 
of  his  child,  he  must  not  bear.  He  lives  not 
for  his  family,  but  for  a  stranger.  He  cannot 
improve  their  lot.  His  wife  and  daughter  he 
cannot  shield  from  insult.  They  may  be  torn 
from  him  at  another's  pleasure,  sold  as  beasts 
of  burden,  sent  he  knows  not  whither,  sent 
where  he  cannot  reach  them,  or  even  inter 
change  inquiries  and  messages  of  love.  To 
the  slave  marriage  has  no  sanctity.  It  may  be 
dissolved  in  a  moment  at  another's  will.  His 
wife,  son,  and  daughter  may  be  lashed  before 
his  eyes,  and  not  a  ringer  must  be  lifted  in 
their  defence.  He  sees  the  scar  of  the  lash  on 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  81 

his  wife  and  child.  Thus  the  slave's  home  is 
desecrated.  Thus  the  tenderest  relations,  in 
tended  by  God  equally  for  all,  and  intended  to 
be  the  chief  springs  of  happiness  and  virtue, 
are  sported  with  wantonly  and  cruelly.  What 
outrage  so  great  as  to  enter  a  man's  house,  and 
tear  from  his  side  the  beings  whom  God  has 
bound  to  him  by  the  holiest  ties  ?  Every  man 
can  make  the  case  his  own.  Every  mother 
can  bring  it  home  to  her  own  heart. 

And  let  it  not  be  said,  that  the  slave  has  not 
the  sensibilities  of  other  men.  Nature  is  too  strong! 
even  for  slavery  to  conquer.  Even  the  brute  has1 
the  yearnings  of  parental  love.  But  suppose 
that  the  conjugal  and  parental  ties  of  the  slave 
may  be  severed  without  a  pang.  What  a  curse 
must  be  slavery,  if  it  can  so  blight  the  heart  with 
more  than  brutal  insensibility,  if  it  can  sink  the 
human  mother  below  the  polar  she-bear,  which 
"  howls  and  dies  for  her  sundered  cub!"  But 
it  does  not  and  cannot  turn  the  slave  to  stone. 
It  leaves,  at  least,  feeling  enough  to  make  these 
domestic  wrongs  occasions  of  frequent  and  deep 
suffering.  Still  it  must  do  much  to  quench  the 
natural  affections.  Can  the  wife,  who  has  been 
brought  up  under  influences  most  unfriendly  to 
female  purity  and  honor,  who  is  exposed  to  the 
whip,  who  may  be  torn  away  at  her  master's 
will,  and  whose  support  and  protection  are  not 
committed  to  a  husband's  faithfulness,  can 
6 


0«  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

such  a  wife,  if  the  name  may  be  given  her, 
be  loved  and  honored  as  a  woman  should  be? 
Or  can  the  love,  which  should  bind  together 
man  and  his  offspring,  be  expected  under  an 
institution  which  subverts,  in  a  great  degree, 
filial  dependence  and  parental  authority  and 
care  ?  Slavery  withers  the  affections  and 
happiness  of  home  at  their  very  root,  by 
tainting  female  purity.  Woman,  brought  up 
in  degradation,  placed  under  another's  power 
and  at  another's  disposal,  and  never  taught  to 
look  forward  to  the  happiness  of  an  inviolate, 
honorable  marriage,  can  hardly  possess  the 
feelings  and  virtues  of  her  sex.  A  blight  falls 
on  her  in  her  early  years.  Those  who  have 
daughters  can  comprehend  her  lot.  In  truth, 
licentiousness  among  bond  and  free  is  the  natu 
ral  issue  of  all-polluting  slavery.  Domestic 
happiness  perishes  under  its  touch,  both  among 
bond  and  free. 

How  wonderful  is  it,  that,  in  civilized  coun 
tries,  men  can  be  so  steeled  by  habit  as  to  invade 
without  remorse  the  peace,  purity,  and  sacred 
relations  of  domestic  life,  as  to  put  asunder 
those  whom  God  has  joined  together,  as  to 
break  up  households  by  processes  more  painful 
than  death !  And  this  is  done  for  pecuniary 
profit !  What !  Can  men,  having  human  feel 
ing,  grow  rich  by  the  desolation  of  families  ? 
We  hear  of  some  of  the  Southern  States  enrich- 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  83 

ing  themselves  by  breeding  slaves  for  sale.  Of 
all  the  licensed  occupations  of  society  this  is 
the  most  detestable.  What !  Grow  men  like 
cattle!  Rear  human* families,  like  herds  of 
swine,  and  then  scatter  them  to  the  four  winds 
for  gain  !  Among  the  imprecations  uttered  by 
man  on  man,  is  there  one  more  fearful,  more 
ominous,  than  the  sighing  of  the  mother  bereft 
of  her  child  by  unfeeling  cupidity  ?  If  blood 
cry  to  God,  surely  that  sigh  will  be  heard  in 
heaven. 

Let  it  not  be  said,  that  members  of  families 
are  often  separated  in  all  conditions  of  life. 
Yes,  but  separated  under  the  influence  of  love. 
The  husband  leaves  wife  and  children,  that  he 
may  provide  for  their  support,  and  carries  them 
with  him  in  his  heart  and  hopes.  The  sailor, 
in  his  lonely  night-watch,  looks  homeward, 
and  well  known  voices  come  to  him  amidst  the 
roar  of  the  waves.  The  parent  sends  away 
his  children,  but  sends  them  to  prosper,  and  to 
press  them  again  to  his  heart  with  a  joy  en 
hanced  by  separation.  Are  such  the  separa 
tions  which  slavery  makes  1  And  can  he,  who 
has  scattered  other  families,  ask  God  to  bless 
his  own  ? 

4.  I  proceed  to  another  important  view  of  the 
evils  of  slavery.  Slavery  produces  and  gives 
license  to  Cruelty.  By  this  it  is  not  meant, 


84  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

that  cruelty  is  the  universal,  habitual,  unfailing 
result.  Thanks  to  God,  Christianity  has  not 
entered  the  world  in  vain.  Where  it  has  not 
cast  down,  it  has  mitignted  bad  institutions. 
Slavery  in  this  country  differs  widely  from  that 
of  ancient  times,  and  from  that  which  the 
Spaniards  imposed  on  the  aboriginals  of  South 
America.  There  is  here  an  increasing  disposi 
tion  to  multiply  the  comforts  of  the  slaves,  and 
in  this  let  us  rejoice.  At  the  same  time,  we 
must  remember,  that,  under  the  light  of  the 
present  day,  and  in  a  country  where  Chris 
tianity  and  the  rights  of  men  are  understood,  a 
diminished  severity  may  contain  more  guilt 
than  the  ferocity  of  darker  ages.  Cruelty  in  its 
lighter  forms  is  now  a  greater  crime  than  the 
atrocious  usages  of  antiquity  at  which  we 
shudder.  "The  times  of  that  ignorance  God 
winked  at,  but  now  he  calleth  men  everywhere 
to  repent."  It  should  also  be  considered,  that 
the  slightest  cruelty  to  the  slave  is  an  aggravated 
wrong,  because  he  is  unjustly  held  in  bondage, 
unjustly  held  as  property.  We  condemn  the 
man  who  enforces  harshly  a  righteous  claim. 
What,  then,  ought  we  to  think  of  lashing  and 
scarring  fellow-creatures,  for  the  purpose  of  up 
holding  an  unrighteous,  usurped  power,  of  ex 
torting  labor  which  is  not  our  due '? 

O 

I  have  said  that  cruelty  is  not  the  habit  of  the 
Slave  States  of  this  country.     Still,  that  it  is 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  85 

frequent  we  cannot  doubt.  Reports,  which 
harrow  up  our  souls,  come  to  us  from  that 
quarter ;  and  we  know  that  they  must  be 
essentially  correct;  because  it  is  impossible 
that  a  large  part,  perhaps  the  majority,  of  the 
population  of  a  country  cafl  be  broken  to  pas 
sive,  unlimited  submission,  without  examples 
of  terrible  severity. 

Let  it  not  be  said,  as  is  sometimes  done,  that 
cruel  deeds  are  perpetrated  everywhere  else, 
as  well  as  in  slave-countries.  Be  it  so  ;  but  in 
all  civilized  nations  unscourged  by  slavery,  a 
principal  object  of  legislation  is  to  protect  every 
man  from  cruelty,  and  to  bring  every  man  to 
punishment,  who  wantonly  tortures  or  wounds 
another  ;  whilst  slavery  plucks  off  restraint 
from  the  ferocious,  or  leaves  them  to  satiate 
their  rage  with  impunity. — Let  it  not  be  said, 
that  these  barbarities  are  regarded  nowhere 
with  more  horror  than  at  the  South.  Be  it  so. 
They  are  abhorred,  but  allowed.  The  power 
of  individuals  to  lacerate  their  fellow-creatures 
is  given  to  them  by  the  community.  The  com 
munity  abhors  the  abuse,  but  confers  the  power 
which  will  certainly  be  abused,  and  thus  strips 
itself  of  all  defence  before  the  bar  of  Almighty 
Justice.  It  must  answer  for  the  crimes  which 
are  shielded  by  its  laws.— Let  it  not  be  said, 
that  these  cruelties  are  checked  by  the  private 
interest  of  the  slave-holder.  Does  regard  to 


86  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

private  interest  save  from  brutal  treatment  the 
draught-horse  in  our  streets  ?  And  may  not  a 
vast  amount  of  suffering  be  inflicted,  which 
will  not  put  in  peril  the  life  or  strength  of  the 
slave  ? 

To  substantiate  the  charge  of  cruelty,  I  shall 
not,  as  I  have  said,  have  recourse  to  current 
reports,  however  well  established.  I  am  wil 
ling  to  dismiss  them  all  as  false.  I  stand  on 
other  ground.  Reports  may  lie,  but  our  daily 
experience  of  human  nature  cannot  lie.  I  sum 
mon  no  witnesses,  or  rather  I  appeal  to  a  wit 
ness  everywhere  present,  a  witness  in  every 
heart.  Who,  that  has  watched  his  own  heart, 
or  observed  others,  does  not  feel  that  man  is 
not  fit  to  be  trusted  with  absolute,  irresponsible 
power  over  man?  It  must  be  abused.  The 
selfish  passions  and  pride  of  our  nature  will  as 
surely  abuse  it,  as  the  storm  will  ravage,  or 
the  ocean  swell  and  roar  under  the  whirlwind. 
A  being,  so  ignorant,  so  headstrong,  so  passion 
ate,  as  man,  ought  not  to  be  trusted  with  this 
terrible  dominion.  He  ought  not  to  desire  it. 
He  ought  to  dread  it.  He  ought  to  cast  it  from 
him,  as  most  perilous  to  himself  and  others. 

Absolute  power  was  not  meant  for  man. 
There  is,  indeed,  an  exception  to  this  rule. 
There  is  one  case,  in  which  God  puts  a  human 
being  wholly  defenceless  into  another's  hands. 
I  refer  to  the  child,  who  is  wholly  subjected  to 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  87 

the  parent's  will.  But  observe  how  carefully, 
I  might  almost  say  anxiously,  God  has  provided 
against  the  abuse  of  this  power.  He  has 
raised  up  for  the  child  in  the  heart  of  the  parent,  a 
guardian,  whom  the  mightiest  on  earth  cannot 
resist.  He  has  fitted  the  parent  for  this  trust, 
by  teaching  him  to  love  his  offspring  better  than 
himself.  No  eloquence  on  earth  is  so  subduing 
as  the  moaning  of  the  infant  when  in  pain. 
No  reward  is  sweeter  than  that  infant's  smile. 
We  say,  God  has  put  the  infant  into  the  pa 
rent's  hands.  Might  we  not  more  truly  say,  that 
he  has  put  the  parent  into  the  child's  power? 
That  little  being  sends  forth  his  father  to  toil, 
and  makes  the  mother  watch  over  him  by  day, 
and  fix  on  him  her  sleepless  eyes  by  night. 
No  tyrant  lays  such  a  yoke.  Thus  God  has 
fenced  and  secured  from  abuse  the  power  of 
the  parent;  and  yet  even  the  parent  has  been 
known,  in  a  moment  of  passion,  to  be  cruel  to 
his  child.  Is  man,  then,  to  be  trusted  with 
absolute  power  over  a  fellow-creature,  who, 
instead  of  being  commended  by  nature  to  his 
tenderest  love,  belongs  to  a  despised  race,  is 
regarded  as  property,  is  made  the  passive  in 
strument  of  his  gratification  and  gain  ?  I  ask 
no  documents  to  prove  the  abuses  of  this  power, 
nor  do  I  care  what  is  said  to  disprove  them. 
Millions  may  rise  up  and  tell  me  that  the  slave 
suffers  little  from  cruelty.  I  know  too  much 


88  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

of  human  nature,  human  history,  human  pas 
sion,  to  believe  them.  I  acquit  slave-holders 
of  all  peculiar  depravity.  I  judge  them  by 
myself.  I  say,  that  absolute  power  always 
corrupts  human  nature  more  or  less.  I  say, 
that  extraordinary,  almost  miraculous  self-con 
trol  is  necessary  to  secure  the  slave-holder  from 
provocation  and  passion ;  and  is  self-control  the 
virtue  which,  above  all  others,  grows  up  amidst 
the  possession  of  irresponsible  dominion?  Even 
when  the  slave-holder  honestly  acquits  himself 
of  cruelty,  he  may  be  criminal.  His  own  con 
sciousness  is  to  be  distrusted.  Having  begun 
with  wronging  the  slave,  with  wresting  from 
him  sacred  rights,  he  may  be  expected  to  mul 
tiply  wrongs,  without  thought.  The  degraded 
state  of  the  slave  may  induce  in  the  master  a 
mode  of  treatment  essentially  inhuman  and 
insulting,  but  which  he  never  drea'ms  to  be 
cruel.  The  influence  of  slavery  in  indurating 
the  moral  feeling  and  blinding  men  to  wrong  is 
one  of  its  worst  evils. 

But  suppose  the  master  to  be  ever  so  hu 
mane.  Still,  he  is  not  always  watching  over 
his  slave.  He  has  his  pleasures  to  attend  to. 
He  is  often  absent.  His  terrible  power  must 
be  delegated.  And  to  whom  is  it  delegated? 
To  men  prepared  to  govern  others,  by  having 
learned  to  govern  themselves  ?  To  men  having 
a  deep  interest  in  the  slaves  ?  To  wise  men, 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  89 

instructed  in  human  nature  ?  To  Christians, 
trained  to  purity  and  love?  Who  does  not 
know,  that  the  office  of  Overseer  is  among  the 
last  which  an  enlightened,  philanthropic,  self- 
respecting  man  would  choose  ?  Who  does  not 
know,  How  often  the  overseer  pollutes  the  plan 
tation  hy  his  licentiousness^  as  well  as  scourges 
it  by  his  severity  ?  In  the  hands  of  such  a 
man  the  lash  is  placed.  To  such  a  man  is 
committed  the  most  fearful  trust  on  earth ! 
For  his  cruelties  the  master  must  answer,  as 
truly  as  if  they  were  his  own.  Nor  is  this  all. 
The  master  does  more  than  delegate  his  power 
to  the  overseer.  How  often  does  he  part  with 
it  wholly  to  the  slave-dealer !  And  has  he 
weighed  the  responsibility  of  such  a  transfer  ? 
Does  he  not  know,  that,  in  selling  his  slaves 
into  merciless  hands,  he  is  merciless  himself, 
and  must  give  an  account  to  God  for  every 
barbarity  of  which  they  become  the  victims? 
The  notorious  cruelty  of  the  slave-dealers  can 
be  no  false  report,  for  it  belongs  to  their  voca 
tion.  These  are  the  men,  who  throng  and  de 
file  our  Seat  of  Government,  whose  slave-mar 
kets  and  slave-dungeons  turn  to  mockery  the 
language  of  freedom  in  the  halls  of  Congress, 
and  who  make  us  justly  the  by-word  and  the 
scorn  of  the  nations.  Is  there  no  cruelty  in 
putting  slaves  under  the  bloody  lash  of  the 
slave-dealer,  to  be  driven  like  herds  of  cattle 


90  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

to  distant  regions,  and  there  to  pass  into  the 
hands  of  strangers,  without  a  pledge  of  their 
finding  justice  or  mercy?  What  heart,  not 
seared  by  custom,  would  not  recoil  from  such 
barbarity  ? 

It  has  been  seen  that  I  do  not  ground  my 
argument  at  all  on  cases  of  excessive  cruelty. 
I  should  attach  less  importance  to  these  than 
do  most  persons,  even  were  they  more  frequent. 
They  form  a  very,  very  small  amount  of  suf 
fering,  compared  with  what  is  inflicted  by 
abuses  of  power  too  minute  for  notice.  Blows, 
insults,  privations,  which  make  no  noise,  and 
leave  no  scar,  are  incomparably  more  destruc 
tive  of  happiness  than  a  few  brutal  violences 
which  move  general  indignation.  A  weak,  de 
spised  being,  having  no  means  of  defence  or 
redress,  living  in  a  community  armed  against 
his  rights,  regarded  as  property,  and  as  bound 
to  entire,  unresisting  compliance  with  another's 
will,  if  not  subjected  to  inflictions  of  ferocious 
cruelty,  is  yet  exposed  to  less  striking  and 
shocking  forms  of  cruelty,  the  amount  of  which 
must  be  a  fearful  mass  of  suffering. 

But  could  it  be  proved  that  there  are  no  cru 
elties  in  slave-countries,  we  ought  not  then  to 
be  more  reconciled  to  slavery  than  we  now  are. 
For  what  would  this  show  ?  That  cruelty  is 
not  needed.  And  why  not  needed  ?  Because 
the  slave  is  entirely  subdued  to  his  lot.  No 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  91 

man  will  be  wholly  unresisting  in  bondage,  but 
he  who  is  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of 
a  slave.  If  the  colored  race  never  need  punish 
ment,  it  is  because  the  feelings  of  men  are 
dead  within  them,  because  they  have  no  con 
sciousness  of  rights,  because  they  are  cowards, 
without  respect  for  themselves,  and  without 
confidence  in  the  sharers  of  their  degraded  lot. 
The  quiet  of  slavery  is  like  that  which  the 
Roman  legions  left  in  ancient  Britain,  the  still 
ness  of  death.  Why  were  the  Romans  accus 
tomed  to  work  their  slaves  in  chains  by  day, 
and  confine  them  in  dungeons  by  night?  Not 
because  they  loved  truelty  for  its  own  sake ; 
but  because  their  slaves  were  stung  with  a 
consciousness  of  degradation,  because  they 
brought  from  the  forests  of  Dacia  some  rude 
ideas  of  human  dignity,  or  from  civilized  coun 
tries  some  experience  of  social  improvements, 
which  naturally  issued  in  violence  and  exas 
peration.  They  needed  cruelty,  for  their  own 
wills  were  not  broken  to  another's,  and  the 
spirit  of  freemen  was  not  wholly  gone.  The 
slave  must  meet  cruel  treatment  either  inwardly 
or  outwardly.  Either  the  soul  or  the  body 
must  receive  the  blow.  Either  the  flesh  must 
be  tortured  or  the  spirit  be  struck  down. 
Dreadful  alternative  to  which  slavery  is  re 
duced  ! 


92  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

5.  I  proceed  to  another  view  of  the  evils  of 
slavery.  I  refer  to  its  influence  on  the  Master. 
This  topic  cannot,  perhaps,  be  so  handled  as  to 
avoid  giving  offence ;  but  without  it  an  imper 
fect  view  of  the  subject  would  be  given.  I  will 
pass  over  many  views.  I  will  say  nothing  of 
the  tendency  of  slavery  to  unsettle  the  ideas  of 
Right  in  the  slave-holder,  to  impair  his  convic 
tions  of  Justice  and  Benevolence  ;  or  of  its  ten 
dency  to  associate  with  labor  ideas  of  degrada 
tion,  and  to  recommend  idleness  as  an  honorable 
exemption.  I  will  confine  myself  to  two  con 
siderations. 

The  first  is,  that  slavery,  above  all  other 
influences,  nourishes  the  passion  for  power  and 
its  kindred  vices.  There  is  no  passion  which 
needs  a  stronger  curb.  Men's  worst  crimes 
have  sprung  from  the  desire  of  being  masters, 
of  bending  others  to  their  yoke.  And  .the  nat 
ural  tendency  of  bringing  others  into  subjection 
to  our  absolute  will  is  to  quicken  into  fearful 
activity  the  imperious,  haughty,  proud,  self- 
seeking  propensities  of  our  nature.  Man  can 
not,  without  imminent  peril  to  his  virtue,  own 
a  fellow-creature,  or  use  the  word  of  absolute 
command  to  his  brethren.  God  never  delegated 
this  power.  It  is  a  usurpation  of  the  Divine 
dominion,  and  its  natural  influence  is  to  pro 
duce  a  spirit  of  superiority  to  Divine  as  well  as 
to  human  laws. 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  93 

Undoubtedly  this  tendency  is  in  a  measure 
counteracted  by  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  the 
genius  of  Christianity,  and  in  conscientious 
individuals  it  may  be  wholly  overcome;  but 
we  see  its  fruits  in  the  corruptions  of  moral 
sentiment  which  prevail  among  slave-holders. 
A  quick  resentment  of  whatever  is  thought  to 
encroach  on  personal  dignity,  a  trembling  jeal 
ousy  of  reputation,  vehemence  of  the  vindictive 
passions,  and  contempt  of  all  laws,  human  and 
divine,  in  retaliating  injury, — these  take  rank 
among  the  virtues  of  men  whose  self-estimation 
has  been  fed  by  the  possession  of  absolute 
power. 

Of  consequence,  the  direct  tendency  of  slavery 
is  to  annihilate  the  control  of  Christianity. 
Humility  is  by  eminence  the  spirit  of  Chris 
tianity.  No  vice  was  so  severely  rebuked  by 
our  Lord,  as  the  passion  for  ruling  over  others. 
A  deference  towards  all  human  beings  as  our 
brethren,  a  benevolence  which  disposes  us  to 
serve  rather  than  to  reign,  to  concede  our  own 
rather  than  to  encroach  on  others'  rights,  to 
forgive,  not  avenge  wrongs,  to  govern  our  own 
spirits  instead  of  breaking  the  spirit  of  an  in 
ferior  or  foe, — this  is  Christianity;  a  religion 
too  high  and  pure  to  be  understood  and  obeyed 
anywhere  as  it  should  be,  but  which  meets 
singular  hostility  in  the  habits  of  mind  gene 
rated  by  slavery. 


94  THE   EVILS   OF   SLAVERY. 

The  slave-holder,  indeed,  values  himself  on 
his  loftiness  of  spirit.  He  has  a  consciousness 
of  dignity,  which  imposes  on  himself  and 
others.  But  truth  cannot  stoop  to  this  lofty 
mien.  Truth,  moral,  Christian  truth,  condemns 
it,  and  condemns  those  who  bow  to  it.  Self- 
respect,  founded  on  a  consciousness  of  our 
moral  nature  and  immortal  destiny,  is,  indeed, 
a  noble  principle ;  but  this  sentiment  includes, 
as  a  part  of  itself,  respect  for  all  who  partake 
our  nature.  A  consciousness  of  dignity,  found 
ed  on  the  subjection  of  others  to  our  absolute 
will,  is  inhuman  and  unjust.  It  is  time  that 
the  teachings  of  Christ  were  understood.  In 
proportion  as  a  man  acquires  a  lofty  bearing 
from  the  habit  of  command  over  wronged  and 
depressed  fellow-creatures,  so  far  he  casts  away 
true  honor,  so  far  he  has  fallen  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  Virtue. 

I  approach  a  more  delicate  subject,  and  one 
on  which  I  shall  not  enlarge.  To  own  the  per 
sons  of  others,  to  hold  females  in  slavery,  is 
necessarily  fatal  to  the  purity  of  a  people. 
That  unprotected  females,  stripped  by  their 
degraded  condition  of  woman's  self-respect, 
should  be  used  to  minister  to  other  passions  in 
men  than  the  love  of  gain  is  next  to  inevitable. 
Accordingly,  in  such  a  community  the  reins 
are  given  to  youthful  licentiousness.  Youth, 
everywhere  in  peril,  is  in  these  circumstances 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  95 

urged  to  vice  with  a  terrible  power.  And  the 
evil  cannot  stop  at  youth.  Early  licentiousness 
is  fruitful  of  crime  in  mature  life.  How  far 
the  obligation  to  conjugal  fidelity,  the  sacred- 
ness  of  domestic  ties,  will  be  revered  amidst 
such  habits,  such  temptations,  such  facilities  to 
vice,  as  are  involved  in  slavery,  needs  no  ex 
position.  So  sure  and  terrible  is  retribution 
even  in  this  life !  Domestic  happiness  is  not 
blighted  in  the  slave's  hut  alone.  The  master's 
infidelity  sheds  a  blight  over  his  own  domestic 
affections  and  joys.  Home,  without  purity  and 
constancy,  is  spoiled  of  its  holiest  charm  and 
most  blessed  influences.  I  need  not  say,  after 
the  preceding  explanations,  that  this  corruption 
is  far  from  being  universal.  Still,  a  slave-coun 
try  reeks  with  licentiousness.  It  is  tainted 
with  a  deadlier  pestilence  than  the  plague. 

But  the  worst  is  not  told.  As  a  consequence 
of  criminal  connections,  many  a  master  has 
children  bom  into  slavery.  Of  these  most,  I 
presume,  receive  protection,  perhaps  indulgence, 
during  the  life  of  the  fathers ;  but  at  their 
death,  not  a  few  are  left  to  the  chances  of  a 
cruel  bondage.  These  cases  must  have  in 
creased,  since  the  difficulties  of  emancipation 
have  been  multiplied.  Still  more ;  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  there  are  cases,  in  which  the  mas 
ter  puts  his  own  children  under  the  whip  of  the 
overseer,  or  else  sells  them  to  undergo  the  miseries 


96  THE   EVILS    OF   SLAVERY. 

of  bondage  among  strangers.  I  should  rejoice 
to  learn  that  my  impressions  on  this  point  are 
false.  If  they  be  true,  then  our  own  country, 
calling  itself  enlightened  and  Christian,  is  de 
nied  with  one  of  the  greatest  enormities  on 
earth.  We  send  missionaries  to  heathen  lands. 
Among  the  pollutions  of  heathenism  I  know 
nothing  worse  than  this.  The  heathen,  who 
feasts  on  his  country's  foe,  may  hold  up  his 
head  by  the  side  of  the  Christian,  who  sells  his 
child  for  gain,  sells  him  to  be  a  slave.  God 
forbid  that  I  should  charge  this  crime  on  a 
people  !  -But  however  rarely  it  may  occur,  it 
is  a  fruit  of  slavery,  an  exercise  of  power  be 
longing  to  slavery,  and  no  laws  restrain  or 
punish  it.  Such  are  the  evils  which  spring 
naturally  from  the  licentiousness  generated  by 
slavery. 

6.  I  cannot  leave  the  subject  of  the  evils  of 
slavery  without  saying  a  word  •  of  its  Political 
influence.  Under  this  head  I  shall  not  engage 
in  discussions  which  belong  to  the  economist. 
I  shall  not  repeat,  what-  has  been  often  proved, 
that  slave-labor  is  less  productive  than  free; 
nor  shall  I  show,  how  the  ability  of  a  commu 
nity  to  unfold  its  resources  in  peace  and  to  de 
fend  itself  in  war  must  be  impaired,  by  degrad 
ing  the  laboring  population  to  a  state,  which 
takes  from  them  motives  to  toil,  and  renders 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  97 

them  objects  of  suspicion  or  dread.  I  wish 
only  to  speak  of  the  influence  of  slavery  on 
Free  Institutions.  This  influence,  we  are 
gravely  told,  is  favorable,  and  therefore  I  am 
bound  to  give  it  a  brief  notice.  Political  liberty 
is  said  to  find  strength  and  security  in  domestic 
servitude.  Strange  mode,  indeed,  of  insuring 
freedom  to  ourselves,  to  violate  it  in  the  persons 
of  others  !  Among  the  new  lights  of  the  age, 
the  most  wonderful  discovery  is,  that  to  spoil 
others  of  their  rights  is  the  way  to  assert  the 
sacredness  of  our  own. 

And  how  is  slavery  proved  to  support 
free  institutions  ?  Slave-holding,  we  are  told, 
infuses  an  indomitable  spirit,,  and  this  is  a 
pledge  against  tyranny.  But  do  we  not  know 
that  Asia  and  Africa,  slave-holding  countries 
from  the  earliest  date  of  history,  have  been 
paralyzed  for  ages  and  robbed  of  all  manly 
force  by  despotism  ?  In  the  feudal  ages,  the 
baron,  surrounded  by  his  serfs,  had  undoubt 
edly  enough  of  a  fiery  spirit  to  keep  him  free, 
if  this  were  the  true  defence  of  freedom ;  but 
gradually  his  pride  was  curbed,  his  power 
broken ;  a  greater  tyrant  swallowed  him  up ; 
and  the  descendants  of  nobles,  who  would  have 
•died  sooner  than  brooked  a  master,  were  turned 
into  courtiers,  as  pliant  as  their  fathers  had 
been  ferocious. 

But  "  the  free  states  of  antiquity,"  we  are 
7 


98  THE   EVILS   OF    SLAVERY. 

told,  "  had  slaves."  So  had  the  monarchies 
of  the  same  periods.  With  which  of  these  in 
stitutions  was  slavery  most  congenial?  To 
which  did  it  most  probably  give  support  1  Be 
sides,  it  is  only  by  courtesy  that  we  call  the 
ancient  republics  free.  Rome  in  her  best  days 
was  an  aristocracy ;  nor  were  private  rights, 
which  it  is  the  chief  office  of  liberty  to  protect, 
rendered  a  whit  more  secure  by  the  gradual 
triumphs  of  the  people  over  the  patrician  power. 
Slavery  was  at  all  periods  the  curse  of  Rome. 
The  great  mass  of  her  free  population,  throwing 
almost  every  laborious  occupation  on  the  slaves, 
became  an  idle,  licentious  rabble ;  and  this  un 
principled  populace,  together  with  the  .slaves, 
furnished  ready  instruments  for  every  private 
and  public  crime.  When  Clodius  prowled  the 
streets  of  Rome  for  the  murder  of  Cicero  and 
the  best  citizens,  his  train  was  composed  in 
part  of  slaves,  fit  bloodhounds  for  his  nefarious 
work.  The  Republic  in  its  proudest  days  was 
desolated  and  convulsed  by  servile  wars.  Im 
perial  Rome  was  overwhelmed  by  savage 
hordes,  for  this  among  other  reasons,  that  her 
whole  peasantry  consisted  either  of  slaves,  or 
of  nominal  freemen  degraded  to  a  servile  con 
dition,  so  that  her  legions  could  be  recruited 
only  from  tribes  of  barbarians  whom  she  had 
formerly  subdued. 

But  the  great  argument  in  favor  of  the  polit- 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  99 

ical  benefits  of  slavery  remains  to  be  stated. 
In  plain  language  it  amounts  to  this,  that 
slavery  excludes  the  laboring  or  poorer  classes 
from  the  elective  franchise,  from  political 
power ;  and  it  is  the  turbulence  of  these 
classes  which  is  supposed  to  constitute  the 
chief  peril  of  liberty.  But  in  slave-holding 
communities  are  there  no  distinctions  of  con 
dition  among  the  free  ?  Are  none  compara 
tively  poor?  Is  there  no  democracy?  Was 
not  Athens,  crowded  as  she  was  with  slaves, 
the  most  turbulent  of  democracies  ?  And  fur 
ther,  do  not  the  idleness  and  impatience  of 
restraint,  into  which  the  free  of  a  slave-hold 
ing  community  naturally  fall,  generate  an  in- 
tenser  party-spirit,  fiercer  political  passions, 
and  more  desperate  instruments  of  ambition, 
than  can  be  found  among  the  laboring  classes 
in  a  community  where  slavery  is  unknown  ? 
In  which  of  the  two  great  divisions  of  our 
own  country  are  political  strifes  most  likely  to 
be  settled  by  the  sword?  In  the  Slave-holding 
States,  or  the  Free?  The  laboring  classes,  when 
brought  up  under  free  institutions  and  equal 
laws,  are  not  necessarily  or  peculiarly  disposed  to 
abuse  the  elective  franchise.  Their  daily  toil, 
often  exhausting,  secures  them  from  habitual 
political  excitement.  The  most  powerful  spirits 
among  them  are  continually  rising  to  a  pros 
perity,  which  gives  them  an  interest  in  public 


100  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

order.  There  is  also  a  general  diffusion  of  prop 
erty,  the  result  of  unfettered  industry,  which 
forms  a  general  motive  to  the  support  of  the 
laws.  It  should  be  added,  that  the  domestic 
virtues  and  religious  sentiments,  which  in  a 
Christian  country  spread  through  all  ranks,  and 
spread  more  widely  among  the  industrious  than 
the  idle,  are  powerful  checks  on  the  passions, 
strong  barriers  against  civil  convulsion.  Idle 
ness,  rather  than  toil,  makes  the  turbulent  par 
tisan.  Whoever  knows  the  state  of  society  in 
the  Free  States  can  testify,  that  the  love  of  lib 
erty,  pride  in  our  free  institutions,  and  jealousy 
of  rights,  are  nowhere  more  active  than  in  those 
very  classes  which  in  a  slave- holding  country 
are  reduced  to  servitude.  Undoubtedly  the 
jealousies,  passions,  and  prejudices  of  the  la 
boring  portion  of  the  community  may  work 
evil,  and  even  ruin  to  the  state ;  and  so  may 
the  luxury,  the  political  venality,  the  gambling 
spirit  of  trade,  and  the  cupidity,  to  be  found 
in  other  ranks  or  conditions.  If  freedom  must 
be  denied  wherever  it  will  be  endangered, 
then  every  class  in  society  must  be  reduced  to 
slavery. 

Free  institutions  rest  on  two  great  political 
virtues,  the  love  of  liberty  and  the  love  of  order. 
The  slave-holder  (I  mean  the  slave-holder  by 
choice)  is  of  necessity  more  or  less  wanting  in 
both.  How  plain  is  it,  that  no  man  can  love 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  101 

liberty  with  a  true  love,  who  has  the  heart  to 
wrest  it  from  others  !  Attachment  to  freedom 
does  not  consist  in  spurning  indignantly  a  yoke 
prepared  for  our  own  necks ;  for  this  is  done 
even  by  the  savage  and  the  beast  of  prey.  It 
is  a  moral  sentiment,  an  impartial  desire  and 
choice  that  others  as  well  as  ourselves  may 
be  protected  from  every  wrong,  may  be  ex 
empted  from  every  unjust  restraint.  Slave- 
holding,  when  perpetuated  selfishly  and  from 
choice,  is  at  open  war  with  this  generous  prin 
ciple.  Jt  is  a  plain,  habitual  contempt  of  hu 
man  rights,  and  of  course  impairs  that  sense 
of  their  sanctity  which  is  their  best  protection. 
It  offers,  every  day  and  "hour,  a  precedent  of 
usurpation  to  the  ambitious.  It  creates  a  caste 
with  despotic  powers;  and  under  such  guardians 
is  liberty  peculiarly  secure?  It  creates  a  burn 
ing  zeal  for  the  rights  of  a  privileged  class,  but 
not  for  the  Rights  of  Men.  These  the  volun 
tary  slavS-holder  ca^ts  down  by  force;  and, 
in  the  changes  of  human  affairs,  the  time  may 
not  be  distant,  when  he  will  learn,  that  force, 
accustomed  to  triumph  over  right,  is  prone 
to  leap  every  bound,  and  to  make  the  proud 
as  well  as  abject  stoop  to  its  sway. 

Slavery  is  also  hostile  to  the  love  of  order, 
which,  in  union  with  the  love  of  liberty,  is  the 
great  support  of  free  institutions.  Slave-hold 
ing  in  a  republic  tends  directly  to  lawlessness. 


102  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

It  gives  the  habit  of  command,  not  of  obedience. 
The  absolute  master  is  not  likely  to  distinguish 
himself  by  subjection  to  the  civil  power.  The 
substitution  of  passion  and  self-will  for  law  is 
nowhere  so  common  as  in  the  Slave-holding 
States.  In  these  it  is  thought  honorable  to  rely 
on  one's  own  arm,  rather  than  on  the  magis 
trate,  for  the  defence  of  many  rights.  In  some, 
perhaps  many,  districts,  the  chief  peace-officer 
seems  to  be  the  weapon  worn  as  part  of  the 
common  dress ;  and  the  multitude  seem  to  be 
more  awed  by  one  another's  passions,  than  by 
the  authority  of  the  state.  Such  communities 
have  no  pledge  of  stable  liberty.  Reverence 
for  the  laws,  as  manifestations  of  the  public 
will,  is  the  very  spirit  of  free  institutions. 
Does  this  spirit  find  its  best  nutriment  in  the 
habits  and  feelings  generated  by  slavery? 

Slavery  is  a  strange  element  to  mix  up  with 
free  institutions.  It  cannot  but  endanger  them. 
It  is  a  pattern  for  every  kind  of  wro*ng.  The 
slave  brings  insecurity  on  the  free.  Whoever 
holds  one  human  being  in  bondage  invites 
others  to  plant  the  foot  on  his  own  neck. 
Thanks  to  God,  not  one  human  being  can  be 
wronged  with  impunity.  The  liberties  of  a 
people  ought  to  tremble,  until  every  man  is 
free.  Tremble  they  will.  Their  true  founda 
tion  is  sapped  by  the  legalized  degradation  of  a 
single  innocent  man  to  slavery.  That  founda- 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  103 

tion  is  impartial  justice,  is  respect  for  human 
nature,  is  respect  for  the  rights  of  every  human 
being. 

I  have  endeavoured,  in  these  remarks,  to  show 
the  hostility  between  slavery  and  free  institu 
tions.  If,  however,  I  err,  if  these  institutions 
cannot  stand  without  slavery  for  their  founda 
tion,  then  I  say,  Let  them  fall-  Then  they 
ought  to  be  buried  in  perpetual  ruins.  Then 
the  name  of  republicanism  ought  to  become  a 
by-word  and  reproach  among  the  nations. 
Then  monarchy,  limited  as  it  is  in  England, 
is  incomparably  better  and  happier  than  our 
more  popular  forms.  Then  despotism,  as  it 
exists  in  Prussia,  where  equal  laws  are  in  the 
main  administered  with  impartiality,  ought 
to  be  preferred.  A  republican  government, 
bought  by  the  sacrifice  of  half  or  more  than 
half  of  a  people,  by  stripping  them  of  their 
most  sacred  rights,  by  degrading  them  to  a 
brutal  condition,  would  cost  too  much.  A  free 
dom  so  tainted  with  wrong  ought  to  be  our 
abhorrence.  They,  who  tell  us  that  slavery  is 
a  necessary  condition  of  a  republic,  do  not 
justify  the  former,  but  pronounce  a  sentence  of 
reprobation  on  the  latter.  If  they  speak  truth, 
we  are  bound  as  a  people  to  seek  more  just  and 
generous  institutions,  under  which  the  rights 
of  all  will  be  secure. 


104  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

I  have  now  placed  before  the  reader  the 
chief  evils  of  slavery.  We  are  told,  however, 
that  these  are  not  without  mitigation,  that 
slavery  has  advantages  which  do  much  to 
counterbalance  its  wrongs  and  pains.  Not,  a 
few  are  partially  reconciled  to  the  institution 
by  the  language  of  confidence  in  which  its 
benefits  are  sometimes  announced.  I  shall 
therefore  close  this  chapter  with  a  very  brief 
consideration  of  what  are  thought  to  be  the 
advantages  of  slavery. 

It  is  often  said,  that  the  slave  does  less  work 
than  the  free  laborer ;  he  bears  a  lighter  bur 
den  than  liberty  would  lay  on  him.  Perhaps 
this  is  generally  true ;  yet,  when  circumstances 
promise  profit  to  the  master  from  the  imposition 
of  excessive  labor,  the  slave  is  not  spared.  In 
the  West  Indies,  the  terrible  waste  of  life 
among  the  over-worked  cultivators  required 
large  supplies  from  Africa  to  keep  up  the  failing 
population.  In  this  country  it  is  probably  true 
that  the  slave  works  less  than  the  free  laborer ; 
but  it  does  not  therefore  follow  that  his  work  is 
lighter.  For  what  is  it  that  lightens  toil  ?  It  is 
Hope ;  it  is  Love ;  it  is  Strong  Motive.  That 
labor  is  light  which  we  do  from  the  heart,  to 
which  a  great  good  quickens  us,  which  is  to 
better  our  lot.  That  labor  is  light  which  is 
to  comfort,  adorn,  and  cheer  our  homes,  to  give 
instruction  to  our  children,  to  solace  the  de- 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  105 

clining  years  of  a  parent,  to  give  to  our  grate 
ful  and  generous  sentiments  the  means  of  exer 
tion.  Great  effort  from  great  motives  is  the 
best  definition  of  a  happy  life.  The  easiest 
labor  is  a  burden  to  him  who  has  no  motive 
for  performing  it.  How  wearisome  is  the  task 
imposed  by  another,  and  wrongfully  imposed  ! 
The  slave  cannot  easily  be  made  to  do  a  free 
man's  work ;  and  why  ?  Because  he  wants  a 
freeman's  spirit,  because  the  spring  of  labor  is 
impaired  within  him,  because  he  works  as  a 
machine,  not  a  free  agent.  The  compulsion, 
under  which  he  toils  for  another,  takes  from 
labor  its  sweetness,  makes  the  daily  round  of 
life  arid  and  dull,  makes  escape  from  toil  the 
chief  interest  of  life. 

We  are  further  told,  that  the  slave  is  freed 
from  all  care,  that  he  is  sure  of  future  support, 
that  when  old  he  is  not  dismissed  to  the  poor- 
house,  but  fed  and  sheltered  in  his  own  hut. 
This  is  true ;  but  it  is  also  true  that  nothing 
can  be  gained  by  violating  the  great  laws  and 
essential  rights  of  our  nature.  The  slave,  we 
are  told,  has  no  care,  his  future  is  provided  for. 
Yet  God  created  him  to  provide  for  the  future, 
to  take  care  of  his  own  happiness ;  and  he  can 
not  be  freed  from  this  care  without  injury  to 
his  moral  and  intellectual  life.  Why  has  God 
given  foresight  and  power  over  the  future,  but 
to  be  used?  Is  it  a  blessing  to  a  rational 


106  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

creature  to  be  placed  in  a  condition  which 
chains  his  faculties  to  the  present  moment, 
which  leaves  nothing  before  him  to  rouse  the 
intellect  or  touch  the  heart  ?  Be  it  also  remem 
bered,  that  the  same  provision,  which  relieves 
the  slave  from  anxiety,  cuts  him  off  from  hope. 
The  future  is  not,  indeed,  haunted  by  spectres 
of  poverty,  nor  is  it  brightened  by  images  of 
joy.  It  stretches  before  him  sterile,  monoto 
nous,  expanding  into  no  refreshing  verdure, 
and  sending  no  cheering  whisper  of  a  better 
lot. 

It  is  true  that  the  free  laborer  may  become  a 
pauper ;  and  so  may  the  free  rich  man,  both 
of  the  North  and  the  South.  Still,  our  capital 
ists  never  dream  of  flying  to  slavery  as  a 
security  against  the  almshouse.  Freedom  un 
doubtedly  has  its  perils.  It  offers  nothing  to 
the  slothful  and  dissolute.  Among  a  people 
left  to  seek  their  own  good  in  their  own  way, 
some  of  all  classes  fail  from  vice,  some  from 
incapacity,  some  from  misfortune.  All  classes 
will  furnish  members  to  the  body  of  the  poor. 
But  in  this  country  the  number  is  small,  and 
ought  constantly  to  decrease.  The  evil,  how 
ever  lamentable,  is  not  so  remediless  and 
spreading  as  to  furnish  a  motive  for  reducing 
half  the  population  to  chains.  Benevolence 
does  much  to  mitigate  it.  The  best  minds  are 
inquiring  how  it  may  be  prevented,  diminished, 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  107 

removed.  It  is  giving  excitement  to  a  philan 
thropy  which  creates  out  of  misfortune  new 
bonds  of  union  between  man  and  man. 

Our  slave-holding  brethren,  who  tell  us  that 
the  condition  of  the  slave  is  better  than  that 
of  the  free  laborer  at  the  North,  talk  ignorantly 
and  rashly.  They  do  not,  cannot  know,  what 
to  us  is  matter  of  daily  observation,  that  from 
the  families  of  our  farmers  and  mechanics  have 
sprung  our  most  distinguished  men,  men  who 
have  done  most  for  science,  arts,  letters,  reli 
gion,  and  freedom  ;  and  that  the  noblest  spirits 
among  us  would  have  been  lost  to  their  coun 
try  and  mankind,  had  the  laboring  class  here 
been  doomed  to  slavery.  They  do  not  know, 
what  we  rejoice  to  tell  them,  that  this  class 
partakes  largely  of  the  impulse  given  to  the 
whole  community ;  that  the  means  of  intellec 
tual  improvement  are  multiplying  to  the  labo 
rious  as  fast  as  to  the  opulent ;  that  our  most 
distinguished  citizens  meet  them  as  brethren, 
and  communicate  to  them  in  public  discourses 
their  own  most  important  acquisitions.  Un 
doubtedly,  the  Christian,  republican  spirit  is 
not  working,  even  here,  as  it  should.  The 
more  improved  and  prosperous  classes  have  not 
yet  learned  that  it  is  their  great  mission  to 
elevate  morally  and  intellectually  the  less  ad 
vanced  classes  of  the  community ;  but  the 
great  truth  is  more  and  more  recognised,  and 


108  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

accordingly  a  new  era  may  be  said  to  be  open 
ing  on  society. 

It  is  said,  however,  that  the  slave,  if  not  to 
be  compared  to  the  free  laborer  at  the  North, 
is  in  a  happier  condition  than  the  Irish  peas 
antry.  Let  this  be  granted.  Let  the  security 
of  the  peasant's  domestic  relations,  let  his 
church,  and  his  schoolhouse,  and  his  faint 
hope  of  a  better  lot  pass  for  nothing.  Because 
Ireland  is  suffering  from  the  misgovernment 
and  oppression  of  age^s,  does  it  follow  that  a 
less  grinding  oppression  is  a  good?  Besides, 
are  not  the  wrongs  of  Ireland  acknowledged? 
Is  not  British  legislation  laboring  to  restore 
her  prosperity?  Is  it  not  true,  that,  whilst 
the  slave's  lot  admits  no  important  change, 
the  most  enlightened  minds  are  at  work  to 
confer  on  the  Irish  peasant  the  blessings  of 
education,  of  equal  laws,  of  new  springs  to 
exertion,  of  new  sources  of  wealth  ?  Other 
men,  however  fallen,  may  be  lifted  up.  An 
immovable  weight  presses  on  the  slave. 

But  still  we  are  told,  the  slave  is  gay.  He  is 
not  as  wretched  as  our  theories  teach.  After 
his  toil,  he  sings,  he  dances,  he  gives  no  signs 
of  an  exhausted  frame  or  gloomy  spirit.  The 
slave  happy  !  Why,  then,  contend  for  rights  ? 
Why  follow  with  beating  hearts 'the  struggles 
of  the  patriot  for  freedom  ?  Why  canonize  the 
martyr  to  freedom  ?  The  slave  happy  !  Then 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  109 

happiness  is  to  be  found  in  giving  up  the  dis 
tinctive  attributes  of  a  man :  in  darkening  in 
tellect  and  conscience ;   in  quenching  generous 
sentiments;    in   servility  of   spirit;    in   living 
under  a  whip ;  in  having  neither  property  nor 
rights ;  in  holding  wife  and  child  at  another's 
pleasure;    in  toiling  without   hope;    in  living 
without  an  end !     The  slave,   indeed,  has  his 
pleasures.      His   animal    nature   survives   the 
injury  to  his  rational  and  moral  powers ;  and 
every  animal  has  its  enjoyments.     The  kind 
ness  of  Providence  allows  no  human  being  to 
be   wholly   divorced   from    good.      The   lamb 
frolics ;  the  dog  leaps  for  joy ;  the  bird  fills  the 
air   with   cheerful    harmony ;    and   the    slave 
spends  his  holiday  in  laughter  -and  the  dance. 
Thanks   to   Him   who   never    leaves   himself 
without  witness;  who  cheers  even  the  desert 
with  spots  of  verdure ;  and  opens  a  fountain 
of  joy  in  the  most  withered  heart !     It  is  not 
possible,    however,    to    contemplate  the   occa 
sional  gayety  of  the  slave  without  some  mix 
ture  of  painful  thought.     He  is  gay,  because 
he  has  not  learned  to  think ;  because  he  is  too 
fallen  to  feel  his   wrongs ;  because   he  wants 
just  self-respect.     We  are  grieved  by  the  gay 
ety  of  the  insane.     There  is  a  sadness  in  the 
gayety  of  him  whose  lightness  of  heart  would 
be  turned  to  bitterness  and  indignation,  were 
one  ray  of  light  to  awaken  in  him  the  spirit 
of  a  man. 


110  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

That  there  are  those  among  the  free,  who 
are  more  wretched  than  slaves,  is  undoubtedly 
true;  just  as  there  is  incomparably  greater 
misery  among  men  than  among  brutes.  The 
brute  never  knows  the  agony  of  a  human  spirit 
torn  by  remorse  or  wounded  in  its  love.  But 
would  we  cease  to  be  human,  because  our 
capacity  for  suffering  increases  with  the  eleva 
tion  of  our  nature  ?  All  blessings  may  be  per 
verted,  and  the  greatest  perverted  most.  Were 
we  to  visit  a  slave-country,  undoubtedly  the 
most  miserable  human  beings  would  be  found 
among  the  free ;  for  among  them  the  passions 
have  wider  sweep,  and  the  power  they  possess 
may  be  used  to  their  own  ruin.  Liberty  is  not 
a  necessity  of  happiness.  It  is  only  a  means 
of  good.  It  is  a  trust  which  may  be  abused. 
Are  all  such  trusts  to  be  cast  away  ?  Are  they 
not  the  greatest  gifts  of  Heaven  ? 

But  the  slave,  we  are  told,  often  manifests 
affection  to  his  master,  grieves  at  his  departure, 
and  welcomes  his  return.  I  will  not  endeavour 
to  explain  this,  by  saying  that  the  master's 
absence  places  the  slave  under  the  overseer. 
Nor  will  I  object,  that  the  slave's  propensity  to 
steal  from  his  master,  his  need  of  the  whip  to 
urge  him  to  toil,  and  the  dread  of  insurrection 
which  he  inspires,  are  signs  of  any  thing  but 
love.  There  is,  undoubtedly,  much  more  affec 
tion  in  this  relation  than  could  be  expected. 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  Ill 

Of  all  races  of  men,  the  African  is  the  mildest 
and  most  susceptible  of  attachment.     He  loves, 
where  the  European  would  hate.     He  watches 
the  life  of  a  master,  whom  the  North- American 
Indian,  in  like  circumstances,  would  stab  to  the 
heart.     The  African  is  affectionate.     Is  this  a 
reason  for  holding  him  in  chains  ?    We  cannot, 
however,  think  of  this  most  interesting  feature 
of  slavery  with  unmixed  pleasure.     It  is  the 
curse  of  slavery,    that   it   can   touch   nothing 
which   it   does  not   debase.     Even  love,   that 
sentiment  given  us  by  God  to  be  the  germ  of  a 
divine  virtue,  becomes  in  the  slave  a  weakness, 
almost    a    degradation.      His    affections    lose 
much  of  their  beauty  and  dignity.     He  ought, 
indeed,  to- feel  benevolence  towards  his  master; 
but  to  attach  himself  to  a  man  who  keeps  him 
in   the   dust   and  denies   him  the  rights  of  a 
man ;  to  be  grateful  and  devoted  to  one  who 
extorts  his  toil  and  debases  him  into  a  chattel ; 
this  has  a  taint  of  servility,  which  makes  us 
grieve  whilst  we  admire.     However,  we  would 
not  diminish  the  attachment  of  the  slave.     He 
is    the   happier   for  his   generosity.     Let  him 
love  his  master,  and  let  the  master  win  love 
by  kindness.     We  only  say,  let  not  this  mani 
festation  of  a  generous  nature  in  the  slave  be 
turned  against  him.     Let  it  not  be  made  an 
answer  to  an  exposition  of  his  wrongs.     Let  it 
not  be   used   as   a  weapon   for  his  perpetual 
degradation. 


112  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

But  the  slave,  we  are  told,  is  taught  Religion. 
This  is  the  most  cheering  sound  which  comes 
to  us  from  the  land  of  bondage.  We  are  re 
joiced  to  learn  that  any  portion  of  the  slaves 
are  instructed  in  that  truth,  which  gives  in 
ward  freedom.  They  hear  at  least  one  voice 
of  deep,  genuine  love,  the  voice  of  Christ ;  and 
read  in  his  cross  what  all  other  things  hide 
from  them,  the  unutterable  worth  of  their  spir 
itual  nature.  This  portion,  however,  is  small. 
The  greater  part  are  still  buried  in  heathen 
ignorance.  Besides,  religion,  though  a  great 
good,  can  hardly  exert  its  full  power  on  the 
slave.  Will  it  not  be  taught  to  make  him 
obedient  to  his  master,  rather  than  to  raise 
him  to  the  dignity  of  a  man?  Is  slavery, 
which  tends  so  proverbially  to  debase  the 
mind,  the  preparation  for  spiritual  truth  ? 
Can  the  slave  comprehend  the  principle  of 
Love,  the  essential  principle  of  Christianity, 
when  he  hears  it  from  the  lips  of  those 
whose  relations  to  him  express  injustice  and 
selfishness  ?  But  suppose  him  to  receive 
Christianity  in  its  purity,  and  to  feel  all  its 
power.  Is  this  to  reconcile  us  to  slavery  ? 
Is  a  being,  who  can  understand  the  sublimest 
truth  which  has  ever  entered  the  human 
mind,  who  can  love  and  adore  God,  who 
can  conform  himself  to  the  celestial  virtue 
of  the  Saviour,  for  whom  that  Saviour  died, 


THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  113 

to  whom  heaven  is  opened,  whose  repent 
ance  now  gives  joy  in  heaven, — is  such  a 
being  to  be  held  as  property,  driven  by  force 
as  the  brute,  and  denied  the  rights  of  man 
by  a  fellow-creature,  by  a  professed  disciple 
of  the  just  and  merciful  Saviour?  Has  he  a 
religious  nature,  and  dares  any  one  hold  him 
as  a  slave  ? 

I  have  now  completed  my  views  of  the  evils 
of  slavery,  and  have  shown  how  little  they 
are  mitigated  by  what  are  thought  its  advan 
tages.  In  this  whole  discussion  I  have  cau 
tiously  avoided  quoting  particular  examples 
of  its  baneful  influences.  I  have  not  brought 
together  accounts  of  horrible  cruelty  which 
come  to  us  from  the  South.  I  have  confined 
myself  to  the  natural  tendencies  of  slavery, 
to  evils  bound  up  in  its  very  nature,  which, 
as  long  as  man  is  man,  cannot  be  separated 
from  it.  That  these  evils  are  unmixed,  1  do 
not  say.  More  or  less  of  good  may  often  be 
found  in  connection  with  them.  No  institu 
tion,  be  it  what  it  may,  can  make  the  life  of  a 
human  being  wholly  evil,  or  cut  off  every 
means  of  improvement.  God's  benevolence 
triumphs  over  all  the  perverseness  and  folly 
of  man's  devices.  He  sends  a  cheering  beam 
into  the  darkest  abode.  The  slave  has  his 
hours  of  exhilaration.  His  hut  occasionally 
8 


114  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

rings  with  thoughtless  mirth.  Among  this 
class,  too,  there  are  and  must  be,  occasionally, 
higher  pleasures.  God  is  no  respecter  of  per 
sons;  and  in  some  slaves  there  is  a  happy 
nature  which  no  condition  can  destroy,  just  as 
among  children  we  find  some  whom  the  worst 
education  cannot  spoil.  The  African  is  so 
affectionate,  imitative  and  docile,  that  in  fa 
vorable  circumstances  he  catches  much  that 
is  good;  and  accordingly  the  influence  of  a 
wise  and  kind  master  will  be  seen  in  the 
very  countenance  and  bearing  of  his  slaves. 
Among  this  degraded  people,  there  are,  occa 
sionally,  examples  of  superior  intelligence  and 
virtue,  showing  the  groundlessness  of  the 
opinion  that  they  are  incapable  of  filling  a 
higher  rank  than  slavery,  and  showing  that 
human  nature  is  too  generous  and  hardy  to 
be  wholly  destroyed  in  the  most  unpropitious 
state.  We  also  witness  in  this  class,  and  very 
often,  a  superior  physical  development,  a  grace 
of  form  and  motion,  which  almost  extorts  a 
feeling  approaching  respect.  I  mean  not  to 
affirm  that  slavery  excludes  all  good,  for  hu 
man  life  cannot  long  endure  under  the  priva 
tion  of  every  thing  happy  and  improving.  I 
have  spoken  of  its  natural  tendencies  and 
results.  These  are  wholly  and  only  evil. 

I  am  aware  that  it  will  be  replied  to  the 
views   now    given    of   slavery,    that    persons 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  115 

living  at  a  distance  from  it  cannot  comprehend 
it,  that  its  true  character  can  be  learned  only 
from  those  who  know  it  practically,   and  are 
familiar  with  its  operations.     To   this  I   will 
not  reply,  that  I  have  seen  it  near  at  hand. 
It  is  sufficient  to  reply,  that  men  may  lose  the 
power  of  seeing  an  object  fairly,  by  being  too 
near   as  well   as  by  being  too   remote.     The 
slave-holder   is  too   familiar   with   slavery   to 
understand   it.     To   be.  educated   in   injustice 
is  almost  necessarily  to  be  blinded  by  it  more 
or  less.     To  exercise  usurped  power  from  birth 
is  the  surest  way  to  look  upon  it  as  a  right 
and  a  good.     The   slave-holder  tells   us  that 
he  only  can  instruct  us  about  slavery.     But 
suppose  that  we  wished  to  learn  the  true  char 
acter  of  despotism ;  should  we  go  to  the  palace, 
and  take  the  despot  as  our  teacher  ?     Should 
we  pay  much  heed  to  his  assurance,  that  he 
alone  could  understand  the  character  of  abso 
lute  power,  and  that  we  in  a  republic  could 
know  nothing   of  the   condition   of  men   sub 
jected  to  irresponsible  will?    The  sad  influence 
of  slavery,   in   darkening  the  mind  which  is 
perpetually  conversant  with  it,  is  disclosed  to 
us  in  the  recent  attempts  made  at  the  South  to 
represent  this  institution  as  a  good.     Freemen, 
who  would  sooner  die  than  resign  their  rights, 
talk   of  the  happiness   of  those   from  whom 
every  right  is  wrested.     They  talk  of  the  slave 


116  THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

as  "  property,"  with  the  same  confidence  as 
if  this  were  the  holiest  claim.  This  is  one 
of  the  mournful  effects  of  slavery.  It  darkens 
the  moral  sense  of  the  master.  And  can  men, 
whose  position  is  so  unfavorable  to  just,  im 
partial  judgment,  expect  us  to  acquiesce  in 
their  views  ? 

There  is  another  reply.  If  the  Slave-holding 
States  expect  us  to  admit  their  views  of  this 
institution,  they  must  allow  it  to  be  freely 
discussed  among  themselves.  Of  what  avail 
is  their  testimony  in  favor  of  slavery,  when 
not  a  tongue  is  allowed  to  say  a  word  in  its 
condemnation?  Of  what  use  is  the  press, 
when  it  can  publish  only  on  one  side?  In  large 
portions  of  the  Slave-holding  States  freedom 
of  speech  on  this  subject  is  at  an  end.  Who 
ever  should  publish  among  them  the  sentiments 
respecting  slavery,  which  are  universally 
adopted  through  the  civilized  world,  would  put 
his  life  in  jeopardy,  would  probably  be  flayed 
or  hung.  On  this  great  subject,  which  affects 
vitally  their  peace  and  prosperity,  their  moral 
and  political  interests,  no  philanthropist,  who 
has  come  to  the  truth,  can  speak  his  mind. 
Even  the  minister  of  religion,  who  feels  the 
hostility  between  slavery  and  Christianity, 
dares  not  speak.  His  calling  might  not  save 
him  from  popular  rage.  Thus  slavery  avenges 
itself.  It  brings  the  masters  under  despotism. 


THE    EVILS    OF    SLAVERY.  117 

It  takes  away  that  liberty  which  a  freeman 
prizes  as  life,  liberty  of  speech.  All  this,  we 
are  told,  is  necessary,  and  so  it  may  be  ;  but  an 
institution  imposing  such  a  necessity  cannot  be 
a  good  :  and  one  thing  is  plain  ;  the  testimony 
of  men  placed  under  such  restraints  cannot 
be  too  cautiously  received.  We  have  better 
sources  of  knowledge.  We  have  the  testimony 
of  ages,  and  the  testimony  of  the  unchangeable 
principles  of  human  nature.  These  assure  us 
that  slavery  is  "  evil,  and  evil  continually." 

I  ought  not  to  close  this  head  without  ac 
knowledging,  (what  I  cheerfully  do,)  that  in 
many  cases  the  kindness  of  masters  does  much 
for  the  mitigation  of  slavery.  Could  it  be  ren 
dered  harmless,  the  efforts  of  many  would  not 
be  spared  to  make  it  so.  It  is  evil,  not  through 
any  singular  corruption  in  the  slave-holder, 
but  from  its  own  nature,  and  in  spite  of  all 
efforts  to  make  it  a  good.  It  is  evil,  not  because 
it  exists  on  this  or  that  spot.  Were  it  planted 
at  the  North,  it  might  become  a  greater  curse, 
more  hardening  and  depraving,  than  it  now 
proves  under  a  milder  sky.  It  is  not  of  the 
particular  form  of  slavery  in  this  country  that 
I  complain.  I  am  willing  to  allow  that  it  is 
here  comparatively  mild ;  that  on  many  plan 
tations  no  abuses  exist,  but  such  as  are  insepa 
rable  from  its  very  nature.  The  mischief  lies 
in  its  very  nature.  "  Men  do  not  gather  grapes 


118  THE   EVILS    OF    SLAVERY. 

of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles."  An  institution 
so  founded  in  wrong,  so  imbued  with  injustice, 
cannot  be  made  a  good.  It  cannot,  like  other 
institutions,  be  perpetuated  by  being  improved. 
To  improve  it  is  to  prepare  the  way  for  its 
subversion.  Every  melioration  of  the  slave's 
lot  is  a  step  toward  freedom.  Slavery  is 
thus  radically,  essentially  evil.  Every  good 
man  should  earnestly  pray  and  use  every 
virtuous  influence,  that  an  institution  so 
blighting  to  human  nature  may  be  brought 
to  an  end. 


CHAPTER    V. 


SCRIPTURE. 

ATTEMPTS  are  often  made  to  support  slavery 
by  the  authority  of  Revelation.  "  Slavery,"  it 
is  said,  "is  allowed  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
not  condemned  in  the  New.  Paul  commands 
slaves  to  obey.  He  commands  masters,  not  to 
release  their  slaves,  but  to  treat  them  justly. 
Therefore  slavery  is  right,  is  sanctified  by 
God's  Word."  •  In  this  age  of  the  world,  and 
amidst  the  light  which  has  been  thrown  on  the 
true  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  such 
reasoning  hardly  deserves  notice.  A  few  words 
only  will  be  offered  in  reply. 

This  reasoning  proves  too  much.  If  usages, 
sanctioned  in  the  Old  Testament  and  not  for 
bidden  in  the  New,  are  right,  then  our  moral 
code  will  undergo  a  sad  deterioration.  Poly 
gamy  was  allowed  to  the  Israelites,  was  the 
practice  of  the  holiest  men,  and  was  common 
and  licensed  in  the  age  of  the  Apostles.  But 
the  Apostles  nowhere  condemn  it,  nor  was  the 


120  SCRIPTURE. 

renunciation  of  it  made  an  essential  condition 
of  admission  into  the  Christian  church.  It  is 
true  that  in  one  passage  Christ  has  condemned 
it  by  implication.  But  is  not  slavery  con 
demned  by  stronger  implication,  in  the  many 
passages  which  make  the  new  religion  to  con 
sist  in  serving  one  another,  and  in  doing  to 
others  what  we  would  that  they  should  do  to 
ourselves?  Why  may  not  Scripture  be  used 
to  stock  our  houses  with  wives  as  well  as  with 
slaves  ? 

Again.  Paul  is  said  to  sanction  slavery. 
Let  us  now  ask,  What  was  slavery  in  the  age 
of  Paul  ?  It  was  the  slavery,  not  so  much  of 
black  as  of  white  men,  not  merely  of  barba 
rians  but  of  Greeks,  not  merely  of  the  ignorant 
and  debased,  but  of  the  virtuous,  educated,  and 
refined.  Piracy  and  conquest  were  the  chief 
means  of  supplying  the  slave-market,  and  they 
heeded  neither  character  nor  condition.  Some 
times  the  greater  part  of  the  population  of  a  cap 
tured  city  was  sold  into  bondage,  sometimes  the 
whole,  as  in  the  case  of  Jerusalem.  Noble  and 
royal  families,  the  rich  and  great,  the  learned 
and  powerful,  the  philosopher  and  poet,  the 
wisest  and  best  men,  were  condemned  to  the 
chain.  Such  was  ancient  slavery.  And  this, 
we  are  told,  is  allowed  and  confirmed  by  the 
Word  of  God  !  Had  Napoleon,  on  capturing 
Berlin  or  Vienna,  doomed  most  or  the  whole 


SCRIPTURE.  121 

of  their  inhabitants  to  bondage ;  had  he  seized 
on  venerable  matrons,  the  mothers  of  illus 
trious  men,  who  were  reposing,  after  virtuous 
lives,  in  .the  bosom  of  grateful  families;  had 
he  seized  on  the  delicate,  refined,  beautiful 
young  woman,  whose  education  had  pre 
pared  her  to  grace  the  sphere  in  which  God 
had  placed  her,  and  over  all  whose  prospects 
the  freshest  hopes  and  most  glowing  imagi 
nations  of  early  life  were  breathed;  had  he 
seized  on  the  minister  of  religion,  the  man  of 
science,  the  man  of  genius,  the  sage,  the  guides 
of  the  world  ;  had  he  scattered  these  through 
the  slave-markets  of  the  world,  and  trans 
ferred  them  to  the  highest  bidders  at  public 
auction,  the  men  to  be  converted  into  instru 
ments  of  slavish  toil,  the  women  into  instru 
ments  of  lust,  and  both  to  endure  whatever 
indignities  and  tortures  absolute  power  can 
inflict;  we  should  then  have  had  a  picture, 
in  the  present  age,  of  slavery  as  it  existed 
in  the  time  of  Paul.  Such  slavery,  we  are 
told,  was  sanctioned  by  the  Apostle  !  Such,  we 
are  told,  he  pronounced  to  be  morally  right ! 
Had  Napoleon  sent  some  cargoes  of  these 
victims  to  these  shores,  we  might  have  bought 
them,  arid  degraded  the  noblest  beings  to  our 
lowest  uses,  and  might  have  cited  Paul  to 
testify  to  our  innocence  !  Were  an  infidel 
to  bring  this  charge  against  the  Apostle,  we 


122 


SCRIPTURE. 


should  say  that  he  was  laboring  in  his  voca 
tion  ;  but  that  a  professed  Christian  should  so 
insult  this  sainted  philanthropist,  this  martyr 
to  truth  and  benevolence,  is  a  sad  proof  of  the 
power  of  slavery  to  blind  its  supporters  to  the 
plainest  truth. 

Slavery,  in  the  age  of  the  Apostle,  had  so 
penetrated  society,  was  so  intimately  inter 
woven  with  it,  and  the  materials  of  servile  war 
were  so  abundant,  that  a  religion,  preaching 
freedom  to  the  slave,  would  have  shaken  the 
social  fabric  to  its  foundation,  and  would  have 
armed  against  itself  the  whole  power  of  the 
state.  Paul  did  not  then  assail  the  institution. 
He  satisfied  himself  with  spreading  principles, 
which,  however  slowly,  could  not  but  work 
its  destruction.  He  commanded  Philemon  to 
receive  his  fugitive  slave  Onesimus,  "  not  as 
a  slave,  but  above  a  slave,  as  a  brother  be 
loved;"  and  he  commanded  masters  to  give 
to  their  slaves  that  which  was  "just  and 
equal  f  thus  asserting  for  the  slave  the 
rights  of  a  Christian  and  a  Man ;  and  how, 
in  his  circumstances,  he  could  have  done 
more  for  the  subversion  of  slavery,  I  do  not 
see. 

Let  me  offer  another  remark.  The  perver 
sion  of  Scripture  to  the  support  of  slavery  is 
singularly  inexcusable  in  this  country.  Paul 
not  only  commanded  slaves  to  obey  their  mas- 


SCRIPTURE.  123 

ters.  He  delivered  these  precepts  :  "  Let  every 
soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  For 
there  is  no  power  but  of  God;  the  powers 
that  be  are  ordained  of  God.  Whosoever, 
therefore,  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the 
ordinance  of  God;  and  they  that  resist  shall 
receive  to  themselves  damnation."  This  pas 
sage  was  written  in  the  time  of  Nero.  It 
teaches  passive  obedience  to  despotism  more 
strongly  than  any  text  teaches  the  lawfulness 
of  slavery.  Accordingly,  it  has  been  quoted 
for  ages  by  the  supporters  of  arbitrary  power, 
and  made  the  strong-hold  of  tyranny.  Did  our 
fathers  acquiesce  in  the  most  obvious  interpre 
tation  of  this  text?  Because  the  first  Chris 
tians  were  taught  to  obey  despotic  rule,  did 
our  fathers  feel  as  if  Christianity  had  stripped 
men  of  their  rights?  Did  they  argue,  that 
tyranny  was  to  be  excused,  because  forcible 
opposition  to  it  is  in  most  cases  wrong  ?  Did 
they  argue,  that  absolute  power  ceases  to  be 
unjust,  because,  as  a  general  rule,  it  is  the 
duty  of  subjects  to  obey  ?  Did  they  infer  that 
bad  institutions  ought  to  be  perpetual,  because 
the  subversion  of  them  by  force  will  almost 
always  inflict  greater  evil  than  it  removes? 
No  ;  they  were  wiser  interpreters  of  God's 
Word.  They  believed  that  despotism  was  a 
wrong,  notwithstanding  the  general  obligation 
upon  its  subjects  to  obey ;  and  that  whenever 


124  SCRIPTURE. 

a  whole  people  should  so  feel  the  wrong  as  to 
demand  its  removal,  the  time  for  removing  it 
had  fully  come.  Such  is  the  school  in  which 
we  here  have  been  brought  up.  To  us,  it  is 
no  mean  proof  of  the  divine  original  of  Chris 
tianity,  that  it  teaches  human  brotherhood  and 
favors  human  rights ;  and  yet,  on  the  ground 
of  two  or  three  passages,  which  admit  different 
constructions,  we  make  Christianity  the  minis 
ter  of  slavery,  the  forger  of  chains  for  those 
whom  it  came  to  make  free. 

It  is  a  plain  rule  of  scriptural  criticism,  that 
particular  texts  should  be  interpreted  according 
to  the  general  tenor  and  spirit  of  Christianity. 
And  what  is  the  general,  the  perpetual  teach 
ing  of  Christianity  in  regard  to  social  duty? 
"  All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them;  for 
this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets."  Now  does 
not  every  man  feel,  that  nothing,  nothing, 
could  induce  him  to  consent  to  be  a  slave? 
Does  he  not  feel,  that,  if  reduced  to  this  abject 
lot,  his  whole  nature,  his  reason,  conscience, 
affections,  would  cry  out  against  it  as  the 
greatest  of  calamities  and  wrongs?  Can  he 
pretend,  then,  that,  in  holding  others  in  bondage, 
he  does  to  his  neighbour  what  he  would  that  his 
neighbour  should  do  to  him  ?  Of  what  avail 
are  a  few  texts,  which  were  designed  for  local 
and  temporary  use,  when  urged  against  the 


SCRIPTURE.  125 

vital,  essential  spirit,  and  the  plainest  precepts 
of  our  religion  ? 

I  close  this  section  with  a  few  extracts  from 
a  recent  work  of  one  of  our  most  distinguished 
writers  ;  not  that  I  think  additional  arguments 
necessary,  but  because^the  authority  of  Scrip 
ture  is  more  successfully  used  than  any  thing 
else  to  reconcile  good  minds  to  slavery. 

"  This  very  course,  which  the  Gospel  takes 
on  this  subject,  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
one  that  could  have  been  taken  in  order  to 
effect  the  universal  abolition  of  slavery.  The 
Gospel  was  designed,  not  for  one  race  or  for  one 
time,  but  for  all  races  and  for  all  times.  It 
looked,  not  at  the  abolition  of  this  form  of  evil 
for  that  age  alone,  but  for  its  universal  aboli 
tion.  Hence  the  important  object  of  its  author 
was  to  gain  it  a  lodgment  in  every  part  of  the 
known  world;  so  that,  by  its  universal  diffu 
sion  among  all  classes  of  society,  it  might 
quietly  and  peacefully  modify  and  subdue  the 
evil  passions  of  men ;  and  thus,  without  vio 
lence,  work  a  revolution  in  the  whole  mass  of 
mankind.  In  this  manner  alone  could  its 
object,  a  universal  moral  revolution,  have  been 
accomplished.  For  if  it  had  forbidden  the  evil 
instead  of  subverting  the  principle,  if  it  had 
proclaimed  the  unlawfulness  of  slavery,  and 
taught  slaves  to  resist  the  oppression  of  their 
masters,  it  would  instantly  have  arrayed  the 


126  SCRIPTURE. 

two  parties  in  deadly  hostility  throughout  the 
civilized  world  ;  its  announcement  would  have 
been  the  signal  of  servile  war ;  and  the  very 
name  of  the  Christian  religion  would  have 
been  forgotten  amidst  the  agitations  of  univer 
sal  bloodshed.  The  fact,  under  these  circum 
stances,  that  the  Gospel  does  not  forbid  slavery, 
affords  no  reason  to  suppose  that  it  does  not 
mean  to  prohibit  it;  much  less  does  it  afford 
ground  for  belief  that  Jesus  Christ  intended  to 
authorize  it. 

"It  is  important  to  remember  that  two 
grounds  of  moral  obligation  are  distinctly  re 
cognised  in  the  Gospel.  The  first  is  our  duty 
to  man  as  man ;  that  is,  on  the  ground  of  the 
relation  which  men  sustain  to  each  other ;  the 
second  is  our  duty  to  man  as  a  creature  of  God; 
that  is,  on  the  ground  of  the  relation  which  we 
all  sustain  to  God. — Now  it  is  to  be  observed, 
that  it  is  precisely  upon  this  latter  ground  that 
the  slave  is  commanded  to  obey  his  master. 
It  is  never  urged,  like  the  duty  of  obedience 
to  parents,  because  it  is  right,  but  because  the 
cultivation  of  meekness  and  forbearance  under 
injury  will  be  well  pleasing  unto  God. — The 
manner  in  which  the  duty  of  servants  or  slaves 
is  inculcated,  therefore,  affords  no  ground  for  the 
assertion  that  the  Gospel  authorizes  one  man 
to  hold  another  in  bondage,  any  more  than  the 
command  to  honor  the  king,  when  that  king 


SCRIPTURE.  127 

was  Nero,  authorized  the  tyranny  of  the  em 
peror;  or  than' the  command  to  turn  the  other 
cheek,  when  one  is  smitten,  justifies  the  inflic 
tion  of  violence  by  an  injurious  man."* 

*  Wayland's  Elements  of  Moral  Science,  pages  225-6.  The 
discussion  of  Slavery,  in  the  chapter  from  which  these  extracts 
are  made,  is  well  worthy  attention. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


MEANS   OF  REMOVING   SLAVERY. 

How  slavery  shall  be  removed,  is  a  question 
for  the  slave-holder,  arid  one  which  he  alone  can 
fully  answer.  He  alone  has  an  intimate  know 
ledge  of  the  character  and  habits  of  the  slaves, 
to  which  the  means  of  emancipation  should  be 
carefully  adapted.  General  views  and  princi 
ples  may  and  should  be  suggested  at  a  distance; 
but  the  mode  of  applying  them  can  be  under 
stood  only  by  those  who  dwell  on  the  spot 
where  the  evil  exists.  To  the  slave-holder 
belongs  the  duty  of  settling  and  employing  the 
best  methods  of  liberation,  and  to  no  other.  We 
have  no  right  of  interference,  nor  do  we  desire 
it.  We  hold  that  the  dangers  of  emancipation, 
if  such  there  are,  would  be  indefinitely  in 
creased,  were  the  boon  to  come  to  the  slave 
from  a  foreign  hand,  were  he  to  see  it  forced 
on  the  master  by  a  foreign  power.  It  is  of  the 
highest  importance  that  slavery  should  be 


MEANS   OF    REMOVING   SLAVERY.  129 

succeeded  by  a  friendly  relation  between  mas 
ter  and  slave ;  and  to  produce  this,  the  latter 
must  see  in  the  former  his  benefactor  and  de 
liverer.  His  liberty  must  seem  to  him  an  ex 
pression  of  benevolence  and  regard  for  his 
rights.  He  must  put  confidence  in  his  superi 
ors,  and  look  to  them  cheerfully  and  gratefully 
for  counsel  and  aid.  Let  him  feel  that  liberty 
has  been  wrung  from  an  unwilling  master,  who 
would  willingly  replace  the  chain,  and  jealousy, 
vindictiveness,  and  hatred  would  spring  up,  to 
blight  the  innocence  and  happiness  of  his  new 
freedom,  and  to  make  it  a  peril  to  himself  and 
all  around  him.  I  believe,  indeed,  that  eman 
cipation,  though  so  bestowed,  would  be  better 
than  everlasting  bondage;  but  the  responsibility 
of  so  conferring  it  is  one  that  none  of  us  are 
anxious  to  assume. 

We  cannot  but  fear  much  from  the  experi 
ment  now  in  progress  in  the  West  Indies,  on 
account  of  its  being  the  work  of  a  foreign  hand. 
The  planters,  especially  of  Jamaica,  have  op 
posed  the  mother-country  with  a  pertinacious- 
ness  bordering  on  insanity;  have  done  much 
to  exasperate  the  slaves,  whose  freedom  they 
could  not  prevent;  have  done  nothing  to  prepare 
them  for  liberty ;  have  met  them  with  gloom  on 
their  countenances,  and  with  evil  auguries  on 
their  lips;  have  taught  them  to  look  abroad 
for  relief,  and  to  see  in  their  masters  only  ob- 
9 


130  MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY. 

structions  to  the  amelioration  of  their  lot.  It 
is  possible  that  under  all  these  obstacles  eman 
cipation  may  succeed.  God  grant  it  success  ! 
If  it  fail,  the  planter  will  have  brought  the  ruin 
very  much  on  himself.  Policy,  as  well  as 
duty,  so  plainly  taught  him  to  take  into  his 
own  hands  the  work  which  a  superior  power 
had  begun,  to  spare  no  effort,  no  expense,  for 
binding  to  him  by  new  ties  those  who  were  to 
throw  off  their  former  chains,  that  we  know 
not  how  to  account  for  his  conduct,  but  by 
supposing  that  his  unhappy  position  as  a  slave 
holder  had  robbed  him  of  his  reason,  as  well 
as  blunted  his  moral  sense. 

In  this  country  no  power  but  that  of  the 
Slave-holding  States  can  remove  the  evil,  and 
none  of  us  are  anxious  to  take  the  office  from 
their  hands.  They  alone  can  do  it  safely. 
They  alone  can  determine  and  apply  the  true 
and  sure  means  of  emancipation.  That  such 
means  exist  I  cannot  doubt ;  for  emancipation 
has  already  been  carried  through  successfully 
in  other  countries ;  and  even  were  there  no 
precedent,  I  should  be  sure,  that,  under  God's 
benevolent  and  righteous  government,  there 
could  not  be  a  necessity  for  holding  human 
beings  in  perpetual  bondage.  This  faith,  how 
ever,  is  not  universal.  Many,  when  they  hear 
of  the  evils  of  slavery,  say,  "It  is  bad,  but 
remediless.  There  are  no  means  of  relief." 


MEANS   OF   REMOVING   SLAVERY.  131 

They  say,  in  a  despairing  tone,  "  Give  us  your 
plan;"  and  justify  their  indifference  to  eman 
cipation,  by  what  they  call  its  hopelessness. 
This  state  of  mind  has  induced  me  to  offer  a 
few  remarks  on  the  means  of  removing  slavery; 
not  that  1  think  of  drawing  up  a  plan ;  for  to  this 
I  am  necessarily  unequal.  No  individual  so 
distant  can  do  the  work,  to  which  the  whole 
intellect  and  benevolence  of  the  South  should 
be  summoned.  I  wish  only  to  suggest  a  few 
principles,  which  I  think  would  insure  a  happy 
result  to  the  benevolent  enterprise,  and  which 
may  help  to  remove  the  incredulity  of  which 
I  have  complained. 

What,  then,  is  to  be  done  for  the  removal  of 
slavery  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  great  principle, 
that  man  cannot  rightfully  be  held  as  property, 
should  be  admitted  by  the  slave-holder.  As  to 
any  public  forms  of  setting  forth  this  principle, 
they  are  of  little  or  no  moment,  provided  it  be 
received  into  the  mind  and  heart.  The  slave 
should  be  acknowledged  as  a  partaker  of  a 
common  nature,  as  having  the  essential  rights 
of  humanity.  This  great  truth  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  every  wise  plan  for  his  relief. 
The  cordial  admission  of  it  would  give  a  con 
sciousness  of  dignity,  of  grandeur,  to  efforts  for 
emancipation.  There  is,  indeed,  a  grandeur  in 
the  idea  of  raising  more  than  two  millions  of 
human  beings  to  the  enjoyment  of  human 


132  MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY. 

rights,  to  the  blessings  of  Christian  civilization^ 
to  the  means  of  indefinite  improvement.  The 
Slave-holding  States  are  called  to  a  nobler 
work  of  benevolence  than  is  committed  to  any 
other  communities.  They  should  comprehend 
its  dignity.  This  they  cannot  do,  till  the  slave 
is  truly,  sincerely,  with  the  mind  and  heart, 
recognised  as  a  Man,  till  he  ceases  to  be  re 
garded  as  Property. 

It  may  be  asked,  whether  I  intend  that  the 
slave  should  be  immediately  set  free  from  all 
his  present  restraints.  By  no  means.  Nothing 
is  farther  from  my  thoughts.  The  slave  cannot 
rightfully,  and  should  not  be,  owned  by  the  In 
dividual.  But,  like  every  other  citizen,  he  is 
subject  to  the  community,  and  the  community 
has  a  right  and  is  bound  to  continue  all  such 
restraints,  as  its  own  safety  and  the  well-being 
of  the  slave  demand.  It  would  be  cruelty,  not 
kindness,  to  the  latter  to  give  him  a  freedom, 
which  he  is  unprepared  to  understand  or  enjoy. 
It  would  be  cruelty  to  strike  the  fetters  from  a 
man,  whose  first  steps  would  infallibly  lead 
him  to  a  precipice.  The  slave  should  not  have 
an  owner,  but  he  should  have  a  guardian.  He 
needs  authority,  to  supply  the  lack  of  that 
discretion  which  he  has  not  yet  attained;  but 
it  should  be  the  authority  of  a  friend ;  an 
official  authority,  conferred  by  the  state,  and 
for  which  there  should  be  responsibleness  to  the 


MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY.  133 

state;  an  authority  especially  designed  to  prepare 
its  subjects  for  personal  freedom.  The  slave 
should  not,  in  the  first  instance,  be  allowed  to 
wander  at  his  will  beyond  the  plantation  on 
which  he  toils ;  and  if  he  cannot  be  induced  to 
work  by  rational  and  natural  motives,  he  should 
be  obliged  to  labor ;  on  the  same  principles  on 
which  the  vagrant  in  other  communities  is 
confined  and  compelled  to  earn  his  bread.  The 
gift  of  liberty  would  be  a  mere  name,  and 
worse  than  nominal,  were  he  to  be  let  loose  on 
society,  under  circumstances  driving  him  to 
crimes,  for  which  he  would  be  condemned  to 
severer  bondage  than  he  had  escaped.  Many 
restraints  must  be  continued;  but  continued, 
not  because  the  colored  race  are  property,  not 
because  they  are  bound  to  live  and  toil  for  an 
owner,  but  solely  and  wholly  because  their  own 
innocence,  security,  and  education,  and  the 
public  order  and  peace,  require  them,  during 
the  present  incapacity,  to  be  restrained.  It 
should  be  remembered,  that  this  incapacity  is 
not  their  fault,  but  their  misfortune ;  that  not 
they,  but  the  community,  are  responsible  for  it; 
and  that  the  community  cannot  without  crime 
profit  by  its  own  wrong.  If  the  government 
should  make  any  distinction  among  the  citi 
zens,  it  should  be  in  behalf  of  the  injured. 
Instead  of  urging  the  past  existenpe  of  slavery, 
and  the  incapacity  which  it  has  induced,  as 


134  MEANS   OF   REMOVING   SLAVERY. 

apologies,  or  reasons  for  continuing  the  yoke, 
the  community  should  find  in  these  very 
circumstances  new  obligations  to  effort  for  the 
wronged. 

There  is  hut  one  weighty  argument  against 
immediate  emancipation,  namely,  that  the  slave 
would  not  support  himself  and  his  children  by 
honest  industry ;  that,  having  always  worked 
on  compulsion,  he  will  riot  work  without  it ; 
that,  having  always  labored  from  another's 
will,  he  will  not  labor  from  his  own ;  that  there 
is  no  spring  of  exertion  in  his  own  mind ;  that 
he  is  unused  to  forethought,  providence,  and 
self-denial,  and  the  responsibilities  of  domestic 
life;  that  freedom  would  produce  idleness; 
idleness,  want;  want,  crime;  and  that  crime, 
when  it  should  become  the  habit  of  numbers, 
would  bring  misery,  perhaps  ruin,  not  only 
on  the  offenders,  but  the  state.  Here  lies  the 
strength  of  the  argument  for  continuing  present 
restraint.  Give  the  slaves  disposition  and 
power  to  support  themselves  and  their  families 
by  honest  industry,  and  complete  emancipation 
should  not  be  delayed  one  hour. 

The  great  step,  then,  towards  the  removal 
of  slavery  is  to  prepare  the  slaves  for  self-sup 
port.  And  this  work  seems  attended  with  no 
peculiar  difficulty.  The  colored  man  is  not  a 
savage,  to  whom  toil  is  torture,  who  has  cen 
tred  every  idea  of  happiness  and  dignity  in  a 


MEANS    OF   REMOVING   SLAVERY.  135 

wild  freedom,  who  must  exchange  the  bound 
less  forest  for  a  narrow  plantation,  and  bend 
his  proud  neck  to  an  unknown  yoke.  Labor 
was  his  first  lesson,  and  he  has  been  repeating 
it  all  his  life.  Can  it  be  a  hard  task  to  teach 
him  to  labor  for  himself,  to  work  from  impulses 
in  his  own  breast  ? 

Much  may  be  done   at  once  to   throw  the 
slave  on  himself,  to  accustom  him  to  work  for 
his  own  and  his  family's  support,  to  awaken 
forethought,  and  strengthen  the  habit  of  pro 
viding   for   the   future.     On   every   plantation 
there  are  slaves,  who  would  do  more  for  wages 
than    from    fear   of    punishment.     There   are 
those,  who,  if  intrusted  with  a  piece  of  ground, 
would  support  themselves  and  pay  a  rent  in 
kind.     There  are  those,  who,  if  moderate  task 
work  were  given  them,  would  gain  their  whole 
subsistence   in   their  own   time.      Now  every 
such  man  ought  to  be  committed  very  much  to 
himself.     It  is  a  crime  to  subject  to  the  whip  a 
man  who  can  be  made  to  toil  from  rational  and 
honorable  motives.     This  partial  introduction 
of  freedom  would  form  a  superior  class  among 
the  slaves,  whose  example  would  have  immense 
moral  power  on  those  who  needed  compulsion. 
The  industrious  and  thriving  would  give  an 
impiilse  to  the  whole  race.    It  is  important  that 
the  property,  thus  earned  by  the  slave,  should 
be  made  as  sacred  as  that  of  any  other  member 


136  MEANS   OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY. 

of  the  community,  and  for  this  end  he  should 
be  enabled  to  obtain  redress  of  wrongs.  In 
case  of  being  injured  by  his  master  in  this  or 
in  any  respect,  he  should  either  be  set  free,  or, 
if  unprepared  for  liberty,  should  be  transferred 
to  another  guardian.  This  system  may  seem 
to  many  to  be  attended  with  insuperable 
difficulties ;  but  if  established  and  watched 
over  by  a  community  sincerely  desirous  of 
emancipation,  (and  no  other  influence  can 
establish  it  here,)  it  would  find  in  public  senti 
ment,  even  more  than  in  law,  the  means  of  ex 
ecution. 

As  another  means  of  raising  the  slave  and 
fitting  him  to  act  from  higher  motives  than 
compulsion,  a  system  of  bounties  and  rewards 
should  be  introduced.  New  privileges,  in 
creased  indulgences,  honorable  distinctions, 
expressions  of  respect,  should  be  awarded  to 
the  honest  and  industrious.  No  people  are 
more  alive  to  commendation  and  honorable 
distinction  than  the  colored  race.  Prizes  for 
good  conduct,  adapted  to  their  tastes  and  char 
acter,  might  in  a  good  degree  supersede  the 
lash.  The  object  is  to  bring  the  slave  to  labor 
from  other  motives  than  brutal  compulsion. 
Such  motives  may  essily  be  found,  if  the  end 
be  conscientiously  proposed. 

One  of  the  great  means  of  elevating  the  slave, 
and  calling  forth  his  energies,  is  to  place  his 


MEANS    OF    REMOVING   SLAVERY.  137 

domestic  relations  on  new  ground.  This  is 
essential.  We  wish  him  to  labor  for  his  family. 
Then  he  must  have  a  family  to  labor  for. 
Then  his  wife  and  children  must  be  truly  his 
own.  Then  his  home  must  be  inviolate.  Then 
the  responsibilities  of  a  husband  and  father 
must  be  laid  on  him.  It  is  agreed  that  he  will 
be  fit  for  freedom  as  soon  as  the  support  of  his 
family  shall  become  his  habit  and  his  happi 
ness;  and  how  can  he  be  brought  to  this  con 
dition,  as  long  as  he  shall  see  no  sanctity  in  the 
marriage  bond,  as  long  as  he  shall  see  his  wife 
and  his  children  exposed  to  indignity  and  to 
sale,  as  long  as  their  support  shall  not  be  in 
trusted  to  his  care  ?  No  measure  for  preparing 
the  slave  for  liberty  can  be  so  effectual  as  the 
improvement  of  his  domestic  lot.  The  whole 
power  of  religion  should  be  employed  to  impress 
him  with  the  sacredness  and  duties  of  marriage. 
The  chaste  and  the  faithful  in  this  connection 
should  receive  open  and  strong  marks  of  respect. 
They  should  be  treated  as  at  the  head  of  their 
race.  The  husband  and  wife,  who  prove  false 
to  each  other,  and  who  will  not  labor  for 
their  children,  should  be  visited  with  the  se 
verest  rebuke.  To  create  a  sense  of  domestic 
obligation,  to  awaken  domestic  affections,  to 
give  the  means  of  domestic  happiness,  to  fix 
deeply  a  conviction  of  the  indissolubleness  of 
marriage,  and  of  the  solemnity  of  the  parental 


138  MEANS    OF    REMOVING   SLAVERY. 

relation,  these  are  the  essential  means  of  raising 
the  slave  to  a  virtuous  and  happy  freedom. 
All  other  men  labor  for  their  families ;  and  so 
will  the  slave,  if  the  sentiments  of  a  man  be 
cherished  in  his  breast.  We  keep  him  in 
bondage,  because,  if  free,  he  will  leave  his 
wife  and  children  to  want;  and  this  bondage 
breaks  down  all  the  feelings  and  habits  which 
would  incite  him  to  toil  for  their  support.  Not 
a  step  will  be  taken  towards  the  preparation 
of  the  slave  for  voluntary  labor,  till  his  domes 
tic  rights  be  respected.  The  violation  of  these 
cries  to  God,  more  than  any  other  evil  of  his 
lot. 

To  carry  this  and  all  other  means  of  im 
provement  into  effect,  it  is  essential  that  the 
slave  should  no  longer  be  bought  and  sold.  As 
long  as  he  is  made  an  article  of  merchandise, 
he  cannot  be  fitted  for  the  offices  of  a  man. 
He  will  have  little  motive  to  accumulate  com 
forts  and  ornaments  in  his  hut,  if  at  any  mo 
ment  he  may  be  torn  from  it.  While  treated 
as  property,  he  will  have  little  encouragement 
to  accumulate  property,  for  it  cannot  be  secure. 
While  his  wife  and  children  may  be  exposed  at 
auction,  and  carried  he  knows  not  where,  can 
he  be  expected  to  feel  and  act  as  a  husband 
and  father  ?  It  is  time  that  this  Christian  and 
civilized  country  should  no  longer  be  dishon 
ored  by  one  of  the  worst  usages  of  barbarism. 


MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY.  139 

Break  up  the  slave-market,  and  one  of  the 
chief  obstructions  to  emancipation  will  be 
removed. 

Let  me  only  add,  that  religious  instruction 
should  go  hand  in  hand  with  all  other  means 
for  preparing  the  slave  for  freedom.  The  co 
lored  race  are  said  to  be  peculiarly  susceptible 
of  the  religious  sentiment.  If  this  be  addressed 
wisely  and  powerfully,  if  the  slave  be  brought 
to  feel  his  relation  and  accountableness  to  God, 
and  to  comprehend  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
he  is  fit  for  freedom.  To  accomplish  this  work, 
perhaps  preaching  should  not  be  the  only  or 
chief  instrument.  Were  the  colored  population 
to  be  assembled  into  Sunday-schools,  and  were 
the  whites  to  become  their  teachers,  a  new  and 
interesting  relation  would  be  formed  between 
the  races,  and  an  influence  be  exerted  which 
would  do  much  to  insure  safety  to  the  gift 
of  freedom. 

In  these  remarks,  I  have  not  intended  to  say 
that  emancipation  is  an  easy  work,  the  work 
of  a  day,  a  good  to  be  accomplished  without 
sacrifices  and  toil.  The  colored  man  is,  indeed, 
singularly  susceptible  of  improvement,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  strength  of  his  propensities  to 
imitation  and  sympathy.  But  all  great  changes 
in  society  have  their  difficulties  and  inconven 
iences,  and  demand  patient  labor.  I  ask  for 
no  precipitate  measures,  no  violent  changes. 


140  MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY. 

What  is  needed,  is,  that  the  Slave-holding 
States  should  resolve  conscientiously  and  in 
good  faith  to  remove  this  greatest  of  moral 
evils  and  wrongs,  and  should  bring  immediately 
to  the  work  their  intelligence,  virtue,  and  power. 
That  its  difficulties  would  yield  before  such 
energies,  who  can  doubt?  Our  weakness  for 
holy  enterprises  lies  generally  in  our  own  re 
luctant  wills.  Breathe  into  men  a  fervent 
purpose,  and  you  awaken  powers  before  un 
known.  How  soon  would  slavery  disappear, 
were  the  obligation  to  remove  it  thoroughly 
understood  and  deeply  felt !  We  are  told  that 
the  Slave-holding  States  have  recently  pros 
pered  beyond  all  precedent.  This  accession  to 
their  wealth  should  be  consecrated  to  the  work 
of  liberating  their  fellow-creatures.  Not  one 
indulgence  should  be  added  to  their  modes  of 
life,  until  the  cry  of  the  oppressed  has  ceased 
from  their  fields,  until  the  rights  of  every  hu 
man  being  are  restored.  Government  should 
devote  itself  to  this  as  its  great  object.  Legis 
latures  should  meet  to  free  the  slave.  The 
church  should  rest  not,  day  or  night,  till  this 
stain  be  wiped  away.  Let  the  deliberations 
of  the  wise,  the  energies  of  the  active,  the 
wealth  of  the  prosperous,  the  prayers  and  toils 
of  the  good,  have  Emancipation  for  their  great 
end.  Let  this  be  discussed  habitually  in  the 
family-circle,  in  the  conference  of  Christians, 


MEANS   OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY.  141 

in  the  halls  of  legislation.  Let  it  mingle  with 
the  first  thoughts  of  the  slave-holder  in  the 
morning  and  the  last  at  night.  Who  can  doubt 
that  to  such  a  spirit  God  would  reveal  the 
means  of  wise  and  powerful  action?  There 
is  but  one  obstacle  to  emancipation,  and  that  is, 
the  want  of  that  spirit  in  which  Christians  and 
freemen  should  resolve  to  exterminate  slavery. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  colonization  among 
the  means  of  removing  slavery,  because  I  be 
lieve  that  to  rely  on  it  for  this  object  would  be 
equivalent  to  a  resolution  to  perpetuate  the  evil 
without  end.  Whatever  good  it  may  do  abroad, 
arid  I  trust  it  will  do  much,  it  promises  little  at 
home.  If  the  Slave-holding  States,  however, 
should  engage  in  colonization,  with  a  firm 
faith  in  its  practicableness,  with  an  energy  pro 
portionate  to  its  greatness,  and  with  a  sincere 
regard  to  the  welfare  of  the  colored  race,  I  am 
confident  it  will  not  fail  from  want  of  sympathy 
and  aid  on  the  part  of  the  other  States.  In 
truth,  these  States  will  not  withhold  their 
hearts  or  hands  or  wealth  from  any  well  con 
sidered  plan  for  the  removal  of  slavery. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  the  inconveniences 
and  sufferings,  which,  it  is  urged,  will  follow 
emancipation,  be  it  ever  so  safe;  for  these,  if 
real,  weigh  nothing  against  the  claims  of  jus 
tice.  The  most  common  objection  is,  that  a 
mixture  of  the  two  races  will  be  the  result. 


142  MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY. 

Can  this  objection  be  urged  in  good  faith  ?  Can 
this  mixture  go  on  faster  or  more  criminally 
than  at  the  present  moment  ?  Can  the  slave 
holder  use  the  word  "Amalgamation"  without  a 
blush  ?  Nothing,  nothing,  can  arrest  this  evil, 
but  the  raising  of  the  colored  woman  to  a  new 
sense  of  character,  to  a  new  self-respect;  and 
this  she  cannot  gain  but  by  being  made  free. 
That  emancipation  will  have  its  evils,  we 
know ;  for  all  great  changes,  however  benefi 
cial,  in  the  social  condition  of  a  people,  must 
interfere  with  some  interests,  must  bring  loss 
or  hardship  to  one  class  or  another ;  but  the 
evils  of  slavery  exceed  beyond  measure  the 
greatest  which  can  attend  its  removal.  Let  the 
slave-holder  desire  earnestly,  and  in  the  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice,  to  restore  freedom,  to  secure 
the  rights  and  the  happiness  of  the  slave,  and 
a  new  light  will  break  upon  his  path.  "Every 
mountain  of  difficulty  will  be  brought  low,  and 
the  rough  places  be  made  smooth;"  the  means 
of  duty  will  become  clear.  But  without  this 
spirit,  no  eloquence  of  man  or  angel  can  per 
suade  the  slave-holder  of  the  safety  of  eman 
cipation. 

Some  readers  may  perhaps  be  disappointed, 
that,  in  speaking  of  the  means  of  removing 
slavery,  1  have  suggested  nothing  which  may 
be  done  for  the  cause  by  the  friends  of  email- 


MEANS    OF   REMOVING   SLAVERY.  143 

cipation  in  the  Free  States.  On  this  point  my 
opinions  may  easily  be  gathered  from  what  has 
been  already  said.  Our  proper  and  only  means 
of  action  is,  to  spread  the  truth  on  the  subject 
of  slavery ;  and  let  none  contemn  this  means 
because  of  its  gradual  influence.  It  is  not 
therefore  less  sure.  No  state,  unless  cut  off  like 
Paraguay  from  the  communion  of  nations,  can 
at  the  present  day  escape  the  power  of  strong, 
deep,  enlightened  opinion.  Every  state,  ac 
knowledging  Christianity,  encouraging  edu 
cation,  and  holding  intercourse  with  the  civi 
lized  world,  must  be  pervaded  by  great  and 
universally  acknowledged  truths,  especially 
when  these,  as  in  the  present  case,  coincide 
with  its  prosperity  as  well  as  with  its  honor. 
Let,  then,  the  friends  of  freedom  and  humanity 
be  true  to  their  principles,  and  commend  them 
by  wise  inculcation  to  all  within  their  influence. 
From  this  work  let  it  be  their  constant  care 
to  exclude  the  evil  passions,  which  so  often 
bring  reproach  and  failure  on  a  good  cause. 
It  is  by  calm,  firm  assertion  of  great  principles, 
and  not  by  personalities  and  vituperations, 
that  strength  is  to  be  given  to  the  constantly 
increasing  reprobation  of  slavery  through  the 
civilized  world. 

Objections,  however,  are  made  to  this  mode 
of  acting  on  slavery.  We  are  told,  that,  in  de 
claring  slavery  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  wrongs, 


144  MEANS   OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY. 

we  violate  the  Constitution.  What !  Can  it  be, 
that  a  free  constitution,  intended  to  guard  all 
rights,  and  especially  to  preserve  inviolate  the 
liberty  of  the  press,  has  in  any  way  foreclosed 
the  discussion  of  a  great  moral  and  religious 
question?  Nothing  but  express  language,  too 
plain  to  be  escaped,  can  justify  us  in  fastening 
on  this  venerable  instrument  so  palpable  an 
inconsistency.  But,  instead  of  being  embodied 
in  plain  words,  the  doctrine  in  question  is  at 
best  a  matter  of  uncertain  inference.  Admit 
such  licentiousness  of  construction,  and  there 
is  no  power  which  may  not  be  grafted  on  the 
Constitution ;  the  mercenary  and  ambitious 
may  warp  it  into  any  shape  to  suit  their  de 
signs.  But  on  this  point  no  labored  reasoning 
is  necessary.  It  is  settled  for  us  by  the  fathers 
of  our  freedom  and  the  framers  of  our  present 
government.  In  the  period  immediately  suc 
ceeding  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  Frank 
lin,  the  calm  and  sagacious,  and  Jay,  the  in 
flexibly  just,  were  Presidents  of  Societies  for 
the  Abolition  of  Slavery.  Societies  of  this  de 
scription  were  spread  over  a  large  part  of  the 
country,  and  were  established  even  in  Mary 
land  and  Virginia.  We  have  the  records  of 
their  annual  conventions,  and  among  their  del 
egates  we  find  some  of  the  most  honored  names 
in  our  country.  Those  of  us,  whose  recollec 
tions  go  back  to  that  period,  can  bear  witness 


MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY.  145 

to  the  freedom  with  which  slavery  was  then 
discussed  in  conversation  and  by  the  press. 
The  servile  doctrine,  which  some  would  now 
fasten  on  the  Constitution,  would  have  been 
rejected  with  indignation  by  our  fathers.  That 
manly  generation  had  not  been  enervated  by 
long  prosperity.  The  calculations  of  commerce 
and  the  spirit  of  gain  had  not  then  prescribed 
bounds  to  speech  and  the  press. 

It  is  further  objected  to  the  discussion  of 
slavery,  that  it  will  incite  the  slaves  to  revolt. 
This  objection  is  founded  on  ignorance.  A 
book,  addressed  to  the  intelligent  of  this  coun 
try  and  the  world,  and  designed  to  operate  on 
public  opinion,  could  no  more  influence  the 
slave,  than  a  speech  in  an  unknown  tongue. 
Unlettered,  confined  to  daily  toil,  and  watched 
by  the  overseer,  he  is  in  little  danger  of  catch 
ing  the  fever  of  liberty  from  discussions  in 
tended  to  act  on  the  minds  of  the  free. — This 
objection,  if  fairly  carried  out,  is  disproved  by 
its  absurdity.  The  amount  of  it  is,  that  nothing 
must  be  published  against  slavery.  Then  the 
noblest  and  most  popular  works  of  literature 
must  be  proscribed.  Then  the  writings  of  the 
sainted  Cowper  must  undergo  purgation;  for, 
among  the  witnesses  against  slavery,  he  is 
perhaps  the  most  awakening.  Then  the  history 
of  the  American  Revolution  must  be  blotted 
out.  Then  the  newspapers  must  beware  of 
10 


146  MEANS    OF    REMOVING   SLAVERY. 

speaking  of  human  rights.  In  truth,  our  liberty 
must  be  kept  a  secret;  for  the  great  danger 
of  the  slave-holder  arises  from  the  infusion  of 
liberty  into  the  whole  of  our  social  system.  A 
grave  book  is  a  dead  letter  to  the  slave ;  but  in 
our  free  institutions  and  manners,  there  is  a 
living  spirit,  which  he  can  comprehend  and  feel. 
Slavery,  under  a  free  government,  is  a  jarring 
element,  a  startling  contrast;  and  the  most 
effectual  means  of  preventing  disaffection 
among  the  enslaved  would  be,  to  keep  all 
signs  of  liberty  out  of  their  sight,  to  cast  society 
in  a  servile  mould,  to  make  it  a  consistent  des 
potism. 

A  good  book,  expounding  at  once  the  rights 
and  duties  of  the  slave,  if  it  could  be  brought 
down  to  his  comprehension,  would  rather  quiet 
than  disturb  him ;  for  it  would  teach  him  that 
submission  to  wrong  is  often  a  duty,  and  that,  in 
his  particular  case,  revolt  would  be  an  infrac 
tion  of  Divine  as  well  as  human  laws.  There 
are,  indeed,  some  persons  among  us,  so  unin- 
structed  in  the  established  principles  of  moral 
and  political  science,  as  to  imagine,  that,  when 
a  writer  pronounces  slavery  an  aggravated 
wrong,  he  necessarily  and  of  course  summons 
the  slave  to  insurrection.  Such  ought  to  know, 
what  is  so  generally  understood,  that  insurrec 
tion  against  the  civil  power  is  never  authorized, 
but  in  cases  which  exclude  all  other  modes  of 


MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY.  147 

relief,  and  which  give  the  hope  of  better  insti 
tutions.  A  book,  written  under  the  influence 
of  this  truth,  were  it,  against  all  probabilities,  to 
reach  the  slave,  would  teach  him  patience,  not 
exasperation. 

It  may  be  added,  that,  if  we  must  cease  to 
write  against  slavery  lest  we  stir  up  revolt, 
then  we  must  cease  to  speak  against  it,  for 
both  must  have  the  same  tendency.  Speech 
has  wings,  as  well  as  the  printed  word.  Some 
times  the  living  voice  is  more  quickening  than 
the  press.  According  to  the  objection  under 
consideration,  we  must,  then,  shut  our  lips  on 
this  great  subject.  The  condemning  whisper 
must  not  be  heard,  lest  some  rash  hearer  should 
echo  and  spread  the  fatal  truth.  And  is  it 
come  to  this,  that  freemen  must  not  give 
utterance  to  their  deepest  moral  convictions? 
Is  slavery  not  only  to  darken  the  South,  but  to 
spread  a  prison-gloom  over  the  North  ?  Are 
the  Free  States  to  renounce  one  of  their  dearest 
rights,  because,  if  they  speak  the  language  of 
freemen,  some  dangerous  word  may  chance  to 
stray  beyond  their  borders,  and  may  possibly 
find  its  way  to  the  hut  of  the  slave  ?  If  so, 
all  rights  must  be  renounced,  as  far  and  as 
fast  as  the  fears,  passions,  and  menaces  of  other 
parts  of  the  country  shall  require  the  surrender. 

Undoubtedly,  if  slavery  be  discussed,  some 
will  write  about  it  petulantly,  passionately,  so 


148  MEANS    OF    REMOVING    SLAVERY. 

as  to"%tir  up  among  the  masters  much  unneces 
sary  irritation.  This  evil  must  be  expected 
and  borne,  unless  we  are  prepared  for  a 
censorship  of  the  press.  There  is  no  subject 
from  which  the  rash  can  be  debarred.  Even 
the  first  principles  of  morals  and  religion, 
on  which  the  order,  safety,  and  happiness  of 
society  mainly  rest,  are  sometimes  covertly, 
sometimes  directly  impugned.  But  must  no 
thing  be  written  on  morals  and  religion,  must 
the  wise  and  good  be  put  to  silence,  because, 
under  a  system  of  freedom,  the  misguided  and 
depraved  will  labor  to  obscure  or  subvert  the 
truth?  Would  not  the  whole  activity  of  life 
be  arrested,  if  every  power,  which  may  be 
abused,  should  be  renounced  ?  Besides,  is 
there  any  portion  of  our  country,  so  wanting 
in  wisdom,  self-respect,  and  common  self-con 
trol,  as  to  be  driven  to  rash  and  ruinous  meas 
ures  by  coarse  invectives,  which  in  a  great  de 
gree  defeat  themselves  by  their  very  violence? 
The  declamations  of  the  passionate  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  pass  by  us  at  the  North  as 
"  the  idle  wind  which  we  regard  not."  Liberty 
naturally  runs  into  these  extravagances,  and 
they,  who  would  tame  it  by  laws  to  such  pro 
priety  of  expression  as  never  to  give  offence, 
would  leave  us  only  the  name  of  freemen. 


CHAPTER    VII. 


ABOLITIONISM. 

THE  word  ABOLITIONIST,  in  its  true  meaning, 
comprehends  every  man  who  feels  himself 
bound  to  exert  his  influence  for  removing 
slavery.  It  is  a  name  of  honorable  import, 
and  was  worn,  not  long  ago,  by  such  men  as 
Franklin  and  Jay.  Events,  however,  contin 
ually  modify  terms;  and,  of  late,  the  word 
Abolitionist  has  been  narrowed  from  its  ori 
ginal  import,  and  restricted  to  the  members  of 
associations  formed  among  us  to  promote  Im 
mediate  Emancipation.  It  is  not  without  re 
luctance  that  I  give  up  to  a  small  body  a  name 
which  every  good  man  ought  to  bear.  But  to 
make  myself  intelligible,  and  to  avoid  circum 
locution,  I  shall  use  the  word  in  what  is  now 
its  common  acceptation. 

I  approach  this  subject  unwillingly,  because 
it  will  be  my  duty  to  censure  those,  whom  at 
this  moment  I  would  on  no  account  hold  up  to 
public  displeasure.  The  persecutions,  which 


ABOLITIONISM. 

>litionists  have  suffered  and  still  suffer, 
only  my  grief  and  indignation,  and 
me  to  defend  them  to  the  full  extent 
truth  and  justice  will  admit.  To  the 
fed  of  whatever  name  my  sympathies 
are  pledged,  and  especially  to  those  who  are 
persecuted  in  a  cause  substantially  good.  I 
would  not  for  worlds  utter  a  word  to  justify 
the  violence  recently  offered  to  a  party,  com 
posed  very  much  of  men  blameless  in  life,  and 
holding  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  to  inju 
ries  ;  and  of  women,  exemplary  in  their  various 
relations,  and  acting,  however  mistakenly, 
from  benevolent  and  pious  impulses. 

Of  the  Abolitionists  L  know  very  few ;  but  I 
am  bound  to  say  of  these,  that  I  honor  them 
for  their  strength  of  principle,  their  sympathy 
with  their  fellow-creatures,  and  their  active 
goodness.  As  a  party,  they  are  singularly  free 
from  political  and  religious  sectarianism,  and 
have  been  distinguished  by  the  absence  of  man 
agement,  calculation,  and  worldly  wisdom. 
That  they  have  ever  proposed  or  desired  insur 
rection  or  violence  among  the  slaves,  there  is 
no  reason  to  believe.  All  their  principles  repel 
the  supposition.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that, 
though  the  South  and  the  North  have  been 
leagued  to  crush  them,  though  they  have  been 
watched  by  a  million  of  eyes,  and  though  pre 
judice  has  been  prepared  to  detect  the  slightest 


ABOLITIONISM. 

sign  of  corrupt  communication  with  the—  m ^ 
yet  this  crime  has  not  been  fastened  on 
member  of  this  body.  A  few  individuals  at 
the  South  have,  indeed,  been  tortured  or  mur 
dered  by  enraged  multitudes,  on  the  charge  of 
stirring  up  revolt;  but  their  guilt  and  their 
connection  with  the  Abolitionists  were  not,  and, 
from  the  circumstances  and  the  nature  dt  the 
case,  could  not  be  established  by  those  deliber 
ate  and  regular  modes  of  investigation,  which 
are  necessary  to  an  impartial  judgment.  •Crimes, 
detected  and  hastily  punished  by  the  multitude 
in  a  moment  of  feverish  suspicion  and  wild 
alarm,  are  generally  creatures  of  fear  and  pas 
sion.  The  act,  which  caused  the  present  ex 
plosion  of  popular  feeling,  was  the  sending  of 
pamphlets  by  the  Abolitionists  into  the  Slave- 
holding  States.  In  so  doing,  they  acted  weakly 
and  without  decorum;  but  they  must  have 
been  insane,  had  they  intended  to  stir  up  a 
servile  war;  for  the  pamphlets  were  sent,  not 
by  stealth,  but  by  the  public  mail ;  and  not  to 
the  slaves,  but  to  the  masters ;  to  men  in  public 
life,  to  men  of  the  greatest  influence  and  dis 
tinction.  Strange  incendiaries  these !  They 
flourished  their  firebrands  about  at  noonday; 
and,  still  more,  put  them  into  the  hands  of  the 
very  men  whom  it  is  said  they  wished  to  de 
stroy.  They  are  accused,  indeed,  of  having 
sent  some  of  the  pamphlets  to  the  free  colored 


•  ABOLITIONISM. 

and  if  sqj  they  acted  with   great  and 
i  rashness.     But   the   publicity  of  the 
whole   transaction   absolves   them   of   corrupt 
design. 

The  charge  of  corrupt  design,  so  vehemently 
brought  against  the  Abolitionists,  is  groundless. . 
The  charge  of  fanaticism  I  have  no  desire  to 
repeft  But  in  the  present  age  it  will  not  do  to 
deal  harshly  with  the  characters  of  fanatics. 
They  form  the  mass  of  the  people.  Religion 
and  Politics,  Philanthropy  and  Temperance, 
Nullification  and  Antimasonry,  the  Levelling 
Spirit  of  the  working  man,  and  the  Spirit  of 
Speculation  in  the  man  of  business,  all  run 
into  fanaticism.  This  is  the  type  of  all  our 
epidemics.  A  sober  man  who  can  find  ?  The 
Abolitionists  have  but  caught  the  fever  of  the 
day.  That  they  should  have  escaped  would 
have  been  a  moral  miracle. — I  offer  these  re 
marks  simply  from  a  sense  of  justice.  Had 
not  a  persecution,  without  parallel  in  our  coun 
try,  broken  forth  against  this  society,  I  should 
not  have  spoken  a  word  in  their  defence.  But 
whilst  I  have  power  I  owe  it  to  the  Persecuted. 
If  they  have  laid  themselves  open  to  the  laws, 
let  them  suffer.  For  all  their  errors  and  sins 
let  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion  inflict  the  full 
measure  of  rebuke  which  they  deserve.  I  ask 
no  favor  for  them.  But  they  shall  not  be  strip 
ped  of  the  rights  of  man,  of  rights  guarantied 


ABOLITIONISM.  153 

"•». 

by  the   laws   and    Constitution,    without  one 
voice,  at  least,  heing  raised  in  their  defence. 

The  Abolitionists  have  done  wrong,  I  believe; 
nor  is  their  wrong  to  be  winked  at,  because 
done  fanatically  or  with  good  intention;  for 
how  much  mischief  may  be  wrought  with  good 
design !  They  have  fallen  into  the  common 
error  of  enthusiasts,  that  of  exaggerating  their 
object,  of  feeling  as  if  no  evil  existed  but  that 
which  they  opposed,  and  as  if  no  guilt  could 
be  compared  with  that  of  countenancing  or 
upholding  it.  The  tone  of  their  newspapers, 
as  far  as  I  have  seen  them,  has  often  been 
fierce,  bitter,  and  abusive.  Their  imaginations 
have  fed  too  much  on  pictures  of  the  cruelty  to 
which  the  slave  is  exposed,  till  not  a  few  have 
probably  conceived  of  his  abode  as  perpetually 
resounding  with  the  lash,  and  ringing  with 
shrieks  of  agony.  I  know  that  many  of  their 
publications  have  been  calm,  well  considered, 
abounding  in  strong  reasoning,  and  imbued 
with  an  enlightened  love  of  freedom.  But 
those,  which  have  been  most  widely  scattered 
and  are  most  adapted  to  act  on  the  common 
mind,  have  had  a  tone  unfriendly  both  to  man 
ners  and  to  the  spirit  of  our  religion.  I  doubt 
not  that  the  majority  of  the  Abolitionists  con 
demn  the  coarseness  and  violence  of  which  I 
complain.  But  in  this,  as  in  most  associations, 
the  many  are  represented  and  controlled  by  the 


154  ABOLITIONISM. 

v* 

few,  and  are  made  to  sanction  and  become  re 
sponsible  for  what  they  disapprove. 

One  of  their  errors  has  been  the  adoption  of 
"  Immediate  Emancipation"  as  their  motto. 
To  this  they  owe  not  a  little  of  their  unpopu 
larity.  This  phrase  has  contributed  much  to 
spread  far  and  wide  the  belief,  that  they  wished 
immediately  to  free  the  slave  from  all  his  re 
straints.  They  made  explanations ;  but  thou 
sands  heard  the  motto  who  never  saw  the  ex 
planation;  and  it  is  certainly  unwise  for  a 
party  to  choose  a  watchword,  which  can  be 
rescued  from  misapprehension  only  by  labored 
explication.  It  may  also  be  doubted,  whether 
they  ever  removed  the  objection  which  their 
language  so  universally  raised,  whether  they 
have  not  always  recommended  a  precipitate 
action,  inconsistent  with  the  well-being  of  the 
slave  and  the  order  of  the  state. 

Another  objection  to  their  movements  is,  that 
they  have  sought  to  accomplish  their  objects 
by  a  system  of  Agitation ;  that  is,  by  a  system 
of  affiliated  societies,  gathered,  and  held  toge 
ther,  and  extended,  by  passionate  eloquence. 
This,  in  truth,  is  the  common  mode  by  which 
all  projects  are  now  accomplished.  The  age 
of  individual  action  is  gone.  Truth  can  hardly 
be  heard  unless  shouted  by  a  crowd.  The 
weightiest  argument  for  a  doctrine  is  the  num 
ber  which  adopts  it.  Accordingly,  to  gather 


ABOLITIONISM.  155 

and  organize  multitudes  is  the  first  care  of  him 
who  would  remove  an  abuse  or  spread  a  re 
form.  That  the  expedient  is  in  some  cases 
useful  is  not  denied.  But  generally  it  is  a 
showy,  noisy  mode  of  action,  appealing  to  the 
passions,  and  driving  men  into  exaggeration; 
and  there  are  special  reasons  why  such  a  mode 
should  not  be  employed  in  regard  to  slavery ; 
for  slavery  is  so  to  be  opposed  as  not  to  exas 
perate  the  slave,  or  endanger  the  community 
in  which  he  lives.  The  Abolitionists  might 
have  formed  an  association ;  but  it  should  have 
been  an  elective  one.  Men  of  strong  moral 
principle,  judiciousness,  sobriety,  should  have 
been  carefully  sought  as  members.  Much  good 
might  have  been  accomplished  by  the  coopera 
tion  of  such  philanthropists.  Instead  of  this, 
the  Abolitionists  sent  forth  their  orators,  some 
of  them  transported  with  fiery  zeal,  to  sound 
the  alarm  against  slavery  through  the  land,  to 
gather  together  young  and  old,  pupils  from 
schools,  females  hardly  arrived  at  years  of  dis 
cretion,  the  ignorant,  the  excitable,  the  impet 
uous,  and  to  organize  these  into  associations  for 
the  battle  against  oppression.  They  preached 
their  doctrine  to  the  colored  people,  and  col 
lected  these  into  their  societies.  To  this  mixed 
and  excitable  multitude,  appeals  were  made  in 
the  piercing  tones  of  passion  ;  and  slave-holders 
were  held  up  as  monsters  of  cruelty  and  crime. 


156  ABOLITIONISM. 

Now  to  this  procedure  I  must  object,  as  un 
wise,  as  unfriendly  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity, 
and  as  increasing,  in  a  degree,  the  perils  of  the 
Slave-holding  States.  Among  the  unenlight 
ened,  whom  they  so  powerfully  addressed,  was 
there  not  reason  to  fear  that  some  might  feel 
themselves  called  to  subvert  this  system  of 
wrong,  by  whatever  means  ?  From  the  free 
colored  people  this  danger  was  particularly  to 
be  apprehended.  It  is  easy  for  us  to  place 
ourselves  in  their  situation.  Suppose  that  mil 
lions  of  white  men  were  enslaved,  robbed  of  all 
their  rights,  in  a  neighbouring  country,  and  en 
slaved  by  a  black  race,  who  had  torn  their 
ancestors  from  the  shores  on  which  our  fathers 
had  lived.  How  deeply  should  we  feel  their 
wrongs !  And  would  it  be  wonderful,  if,  in  a 
moment  of  passionate  excitement,  some  enthu 
siast  should  think  it  his  duty  to  use  his  com 
munication  with  his  injured  brethren  for  stirring 
them  up  to  revolt  ? 

Such  is  the  danger  from  Abolitionism  to  the 
Slave-holding  States.  I  know  no  other.  It  is 
but  justice  to  add,  that  the  principle  of  non-re 
sistance,  which  the  Abolitionists  have  connected 
with  their  passionate  appeals,  seems  to  have 
counteracted  the  peril.  I  know  not  a  case  in 
which  a  member  of  an  anti-slavery  society  has 
been  proved  by  legal  investigation  to  have  tam 
pered  with  the  slaves ;  and  after  the  strongly 


ABOLITIONISM. 


157 


pronounced  and  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Free 
States  on  the  subject,  this  danger  may  be  con 
sidered  as  having  passed  away.  Still  a  mode 
of  action  requiring  these  checks  is  open  to 
strong  objections,  and  ought  to  be  abandoned. 
•Happy  will  it  be,  if  the  disapprobation  of  friends, 
as  well  as  of  foes,  should  give  to  Abolitionists  a 
caution  and  moderation,  which  would  secure 
the  acquiescence  of  the  judicious,  and  the  sym 
pathies  of  the  friends  of  mankind  !  Let  not  a 
good  cause  find  its  chief  obstruction  in  its  de 
fenders.  Let  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth, 
be  spoken  without  paltering  or  fear;  but  so 
spoken  as  to  convince,  not  inflame,  as  to  give 
no  alarm  to  the  wise,  and  no  needless  exasper 
ation  to  the  selfish  and  passionate. 

I  know  it  is  said,  that  nothing  can  be  done 
but  by  excitement  and  vehemence ;  that  the 
zeal  which  dares  every  thing  is  the  only  power 
to  oppose  to  long-rooted  abuses.  But  it  is  not 
true  that  God  has  committed  the  great  work 
of  reforming  the  world  to  passion.  Love  is  a 
minister  of  good,  only  when  it  gives  energy  to 
the  intellect,  and  allies  itself  with  wisdom. 
The  Abolitionists  often  speak  of  Luther's  vehe 
mence  as  a  model  to  future  reformers.  But 
who,  that  has  read  history,  does  not  know  that 
Luther's  reformation  was  accompanied  by  tre 
mendous  miseries  and  crimes,  and  that  its 
progress  was  soon  arrested  ?  and  is  there  not 


158  ABOLITIONISM. 

reason  to  fear,  that  the  fierce,  bitter,  persecuting 
spirit,  which  he  breathed  into  the  work,  not 
only  tarnished  its  glory,  but  limited  its  power  ? 
One  great  principle,  which  we  should  lay  down 
as  immovably  true,  is,  that,  if  a  good  work 
cannot  be  carried  on  by  the  calm,  self-con 
trolled,  benevolent  spirit  of  Christianity,  then 
the  time  for  doing  it  has  not  come.  God  asks 
not  the  aid  of  our  vices.  He  can  overrule  them 
for  good,  but  they  are  not  the  chosen  instru 
ments  of  human  happiness. 

We,  indeed,  need  zeal,  fervent  zeal,  such  as 
will  fear  no  man's  power,  and  shrink  before  no 
man's  frown,  such  as  will  sacrifice  life  to  truth 
and  freedom.  But  this  energy  of  will  ought  to 
be  joined  with  deliberate  wisdom  and  universal 
charity.  It  ought  to  regard  the  whole,  in  its 
strenuous  efforts  for  a  part.  Above  all,  it  ought 
to  ask  first,  not  what  means  are  most  effectual, 
but  what  means  are  sanctioned  by  the  Moral 
Law  and  by  Christian  Love.  We  ought  to  think 
much  more  of  walking  in  the  right  path  than 
of  reaching  our  end.  We  should  desire  virtue 
more  than  success.  If  by  one  wrong  deed  we 
could  accomplish  the  liberation  of  millions,  and 
in  no  other  way,  we  ought  to  feel  that  this 
good,  for  which,  perhaps,  we  had  prayed  with 
an  agony  of  desire,  was  denied  us  by  God,  was 
reserved  for  other  times  and  other  hands.  The 
first  object  of  a  true  zeal  is,  not  that  we  may 


ABOLITIONISM.  159 

prosper,  but  that  we  may  do  right,  that  we 
may  keep  ourselves  unspotted  from  every  evil 
thought,  word,  and  deed.  Under  the  inspira 
tion  of  such  a  zeal,  we  shall  not  find  in  the 
greatness  of  an  enterprise  an  apology  for  in 
trigue  or  for  violence.  We  shall  not  need  im 
mediate  success  to  spur  us  to  exertion.  We 
shall  not  distrust  God,  because  he  does  not 
yield  to  the  cry  of  human  impatience.  We 
shall  not  forsake  a  good  work,  because  it  does 
not  advance  with  a  rapid  step.  Faith  in  truth, 
virtue,  and  Almighty  Goodness,  will  save  us 
alike  from  rashness  and  despair. 

In  lamenting  the  adoption  by  the  Abolition 
ists  of  the  system  of  agitation  or  extensive  ex 
citement,  I  do  not  mean  to  condemn  this  mode 
of  action  as  only  evil.  There  are  cases  to 
which  it  is  adapted ;  and,  in  general,  the  im 
pulse  which  it  gives  is  better  than  the  selfish, 
sluggish  indifference  to  good  objects,  into  which 
the  multitude  so  generally  fall.  But  it  must 
not  supersede  or  be  compared  with  Individual 
action.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  Individual  in 
a  good  cause  is  a  mighty  power.  The  forced, 
artificially  excited  enthusiasm  of  a  multitude, 
kept  together  by  an  organization  which  makes 
them  the  instruments  of  a  few  leading  minds, 
works  superficially,  and  often  injuriously.  I 
fear  that  the  native,  noble-minded  enthusiast 
often  loses  that  single-heartedness  which  is  his 


1 60  ABOLITIONISM. 

greatest  power,  when  once  he  strives  to  avail 
himself  of  the  machinery  of  associations.  The 
true  power  of  a  Reformer  lies  in  speaking 
truth  purely  from  his  own  soul,  without  chang 
ing  one  tone  for  the  purpose  of  managing  or 
enlarging  a  party.  Truth,  to  be  powerful,  must 
speak  in  her  own  words,  and  in  no  other's; 
must  come  forth,  with  the  authority  and  spon 
taneous  energy  of  inspiration,  from  the  depths 
of  the  soul.  Jt  is  the  voice  of  the  Individual 
giving  utterance  to  the  irrepressible  conviction 
of  his  own  thoroughly  moved  spirit,  and  not 
the  shout  of  a  crowd,  which  carries  truth  far 
into  other  souls,  and  insures  it  a  stable  empire 
on  earth.  For  want  of  this,  most  which  is 
now  done  is  done  superficially.  The  progress 
of  society  depends  chiefly  on  the  honest  in 
quiry  of  the  Individual  into  the  particular 
work  ordained  him  by  God,  and  on  his 
simplicity  in  following  out  his  convictions. 
This  moral  independence  is  mightier,  as  well 
as  holier,  than  the  practice  of  getting  warm 
in  crowds,  and  of  waiting  for  an  impulse 
from  multitudes.  The  moment  a  man  parts 
with  moral  independence ;  the  moment  he 
judges  of  duty,  not  from  the  inward  voice,  but 
from  the  interests  and  will  of  a  party;  the 
moment  he  commits  himself  to  a  leader  or  a 
body,  and  winks  at  evil,  because  division  would 
hurt  the  cause ;  the  moment  he  shakes  off  his 


ABOLITIONISM.  161 

particular  responsibility,  because  he  is  but  one 
of  a  thousand  or  million  by  whom  the  evil  is 
done;  that  moment  he  parts  with  his  moral 
power.  He  is  shorn  of  the  energy  of  single- 
hearted  faith  in  the  Right  and  the  True.  He 
hopes  from  man's  policy  what  nothing  but  loy 
alty  to  God  can  accomplish.  He  substitutes 
coarse  weapons  forged  by  man's  wisdom  for 
celestial  power. 

The  adoption  of  the  common  system  of  agi 
tation  by  the  Abolitionists  has  not  been  justified 
by  success.  From  the  beginning  it  created 
alarm  in  the  considerate,  and  strengthened  the 
sympathies  of  the  Free  States  with  the  slave 
holder.  It  made  converts  of  a  few  individuals, 
but  alienated  multitudes.  Its  influence  at  the 
South  has  been  almost  wholly  evil.  It  has 
stirred  up  bitter  passions  and  a  fierce  fanati 
cism,  which  have  shut  every  ear  and  every 
heart  against  its  arguments  and  persuasions. 
These  effects  are  the  more  to  be  deplored,  be 
cause  the  hope  of  freedom  to  the  slave  lies 
chiefly  in  the  dispositions  of  his  master.  The 
Abolitionist  proposed,  indeed,  to  convert  the 
slave-holders ;  and  for  this  end  he  approached 
them  with  vituperation,  and  exhausted  on  them 
the  vocabulary  of  reproach.  And  he  has  reaped 
as  he  sowed,  His  vehement  pleadings  for  the 
slaves  have  been  answered  by  wilder  tones  from 
the  slave-holder ;  and,  what  is  worse,  deliberate 
11 


162  ABOLITIONISM. 

defences  of  slavery  have  been  sent  forth,  in  the 
spirit  of  the  dark  ages,  and  in  defiance  of  the 
moral  convictions  and  feelings  of  the  Christian 
and  civilized  world.  Thus,  with  good  purposes, 
nothing  seems  to  have  been  gained.  Perhaps 
(though  I  am  anxious  to  repel  the  thought) 
something  has  been  lost  to  the  cause  of  freedom 
and  humanity. 

I  earnestly  desire  that  Abolitionism  may  lay 
aside  the  form  of  public  agitation,  and  seek  its 
end  by  wiser  and  milder  means.  I  desire  as 
earnestly,  and  more  earnestly,  that  it  may  not 
be  put  down  by  Lawless  Force.  There  is  a  worse 
evil  than  Abolitionism,  and  that  is  the  suppression 
of  it  by  lawless  force.  No  evil  greater  than  this 
can  exist  in  the  state,  and  this  is  never  needed. 
Be  it,  granted,  that  it  is  the  design,  or  direct,  pal 
pable  tendency  of  Abolitionism  to  stir  up  insur 
rection  at  the  South,  and  that  no  existing  laws 
can  meet  the  exigency.  It  is  the  solemn  duty 
of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  state  to  assemble 
immediately  the  legislative  bodies,  and  their 
duty  immediately  to  apply  the  remedy  of  Law. 
Let  every  friend  of  freedom,  let  every  good 
man  lift  up  his  voice  against  mobs.  Through 
these  lies  our  road  to  tyranny.  It  is  these 
which  have  spread  the  opinion,  so  common  at 
the  South,  that  the  Free  States  cannot  long 
sustain  republican  institutions.  No  man  seems 
to  their  inconsistency  with  liberty.  Our 


ABOLITIONISM.  163 

whole  phraseology  is  in  fault.  Mobs  call  them 
selves,  and  are  called,  the  People,  when  in  truth 
they  assail  immediately  the  sovereignty  of  the 
People,  when  they  involve  the  guilt  of  usurpation 
and  rebellion  against  the  People.  It  is  the  fun 
damental  principle  of  our  institutions,  that  the 
People  is  Sovereign.  But  by  the  People  we 
mean  not  an  individual  here  and  there,  riot  a 
knot  of  twenty  or  a  hundred  or  a  thousand 
individuals  in  this  or  that  spot,  but  the  com 
munity  formed  into  a  body  politic,  and  express 
ing  and  executing  its  will  through  regularly 
appointed  organs.  There  is  but  one  expression 
of  the  will  or  sovereignty  of  the  people,  and 
this  is  Law.  Law  is  the  voice,  the  living  act 
of  the  people.  It  has  no  other.  When  an  in 
dividual  suspends  the  operation  of  Law,  resists 
its  established  ministers,  and  forcibly  substi 
tutes  for  it  his  own  will,  he  is  a  usurper  and 
rebel.  The  same  guilt  attaches  to  a  combina 
tion  of  individuals.  These,  whether  many  or 
few,  in  forcibly  superseding  public  law  and 
establishing  their  own,  rise  up  against  the 
people,  as  truly  as  a  single  usurper.  The 
people  should  assert  its  insulted  majesty,  its 
menaced  sovereignty,  in  one  case  as  decidedly 
as  in  the  other.  The  difference  between  the 
mob  and  the  individual  is.  that  the  usurpation 
of  the  latter  has  a  permanence  not  easily  given 
to  the  tumultuary  movements  of  the  former. 


164  ABOLITIONISM. 

The  distinction  is  a  weighty  one.  Little  im 
portance  is  due  to  sudden  bursts  of  the  popu 
lace,  because  they  so  soon  pass  away.  But 
when  mobs  are  organized,  as  in  the  French 
Revolution,  or  when  they  are  deliberately  re 
solved  on  and  systematically  resorted  to,  as  the 
means  of  putting  down  an  odious  party,  they 
lose  this  apology.  A  conspiracy  exists  against 
the  Sovereignty  of  the  People,  and  ought  to  be 
suppressed,  as  among  the  chief  evils  of  the  state. 

In  this  part  of  the  country  our  abhorrence 
of  mobs  is  lessened  by  the  fact,  that  they  were 
thought  to  do  good  service  in  the  beginning 
of  the  Revolution.  They  probably  were  useful 
then ;  and  why  ?  The  work  of  that  day  was 
Revolution.  To  subvert  a  government  was 
the  fearful  task  to  which  our  fathers  thought 
themselves  summoned.  Their  duty,  they  be 
lieved,  was  Insurrection.  In  such  a  work  mobs 
had  their  place.  The  government  of  the  State 
was  in  the  hands  of  its  foes.  The  people 
could  not  use  the  regular  organs  of  administra 
tion,  for  these  were  held  and  employed  by  the 
power  which  they  wished  to  crush.  Violent, 
irregular  efforts  belonged  to  that  day  of  con 
vulsion. 

To  resist  and  subvert  institutions  is  the 
very  work  of  mobs ;  and  when  these  institu 
tions  are  popular,  when  their  sole  end  is  to 
express  arid  execute  the  will  of  the  people, 


ABOLITIONISM.  165 

then  mobs  are  rebellion  against  the  people,  and 
as  such  should  be  understood  and  suppressed. 
A  people  is  never  more  insulted  than  when  a 
mob  takes  its  name.  Abolition  must  not  be 
put  down  by  lawless  force.  The  attempt  so  to 
destroy  it  ought  to  fail.  Such  attempts  place 
Abolitionism  on  a  new  ground.  They  make  it, 
not  the  cause  of  a  few  enthusiasts,  but  the 
cause  of  freedom.  They  identify  it  with  all 
our  rights  and  popular  institutions.  If  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws  cannot  put  it  down, 
it  must  stand ;  and  he  who  attempts  its  over 
throw  by  lawless  force  is  a  rebel  and  usurper. 
The  Supremacy  of  Law  and  the  Sovereignty 
of  the  People  are  one  and  indivisible.  To 
touch  the  one  is  to  violate  the  other.  This 
should  be  laid  down  as  a  first  principle,  an 
axiom,  a  fundamental  article  of  faith  which  it 
must  be  heresy  to  question.  A  newspaper, 
which  openly  or  by  inuendoes  excites  a  mob, 
should  be  regarded  as  sounding  the  tocsin  of 
insurrection.  On  this  subject  the  public  mind 
slumbers,  and  needs  to  be  awakened,  lest  it 
sleep  the  sleep  of  death. 

How  obvious  is  it,  that  pretexts  for  mobs 
will  never  be  wanting,  if  this  disorganizing 
mode  of  redressing  evils  be  in  any  case  al 
lowed  !  We  all  recollect,  that,  when  a  recent 
attempt  was  made  on  the  life  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  the  cry  broke  forth  from 


166 


ABOLITIONISM. 


his  friends,  "that  the  assassin  was  instigated 
by  the  continual  abuse  poured  forth  on  this 
distinguished  man,  and  especially  by  the  vio 
lent  speeches  uttered  daily  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States."  Suppose,  now,  that  his 
adherents,  to  save  the  Chief  Magistrate  from 
murder,  and  to  guard  his  constitutional  ad 
visers,  had  formed  themselves  into  mobs,  to 
scatter  the  meetings  of  his  opponents.  And 
suppose  that  they  had  resolved  to  put  to  silence 
the  legislators,  who,  it  was  said,  had  abused 
their  freedom  of  speech  to  blacken  the  charac 
ter  and  put  in  peril  the  life  of  the  Chief  Magis 
trate.  Would  they  not  have  had  a  better  pre 
text  than  mobs  against  abolition?  Was  not 
assassination  attempted  ?  Had  not  the  Presi 
dent  received  letters  threatening  his  life,  unless 
his  measures  were  changed  ?  Can  a  year  or  a 
month  pass,  which  will  not  afford  equally 
grave  reasons  for  insurrections  of  the  popu 
lace  ?  A  system  of  mobs  and  a  free  govern 
ment  cannot  stand  together.  The  men  who 
incite  the  former,  and  especially  those  who 
organize  them,  are  among  the  worst  enemies 
of  the  state.  Of  their  motives  I  do  not  speak. 
They  may  think  themselves  doing  service  to 
their  country,  for  there  is  no  limit  to  the  delu 
sions  of  the  times.  I  speak  only  of  the  nature 
and  tendency  of  their  actions.  They  should 
be  put  down  at  once  by  law,  and  by  the  moral 
sentiment  of  an  insulted  people. 


ABOLITIONISM.  167 

In  addition  to  all  other  reasons,  the  honor  of 
our  nation,  and  the  cause  of  free  institutions, 
should  plead  with  us  to  defend  the  laws  from 
insult,  and  social  order  from'  subversion.  The 
moral  influence  and  reputation  of  our  country 
are  fast  declining  abroad.  A  letter,  recently 
received  from  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  expresses  the 
universal  feeling  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean. 
After  speaking  of  the  late  encroachments  on 
liberty  in  France,  he  says,  "  On  your  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  you  contribute,  also,  to  put  in 
peril  the  cause  of  liberty.  We  did  take  plea 
sure  in  thinking  that  there  was  at  least  in  the 
New  World  a  country,  where  liberty  was  well 
understood,  where  all  rights  were  guarantied, 
where  the  people  was  proving  itself  wise  and 
virtuous.  For  some  time  past,  the  news  we 
receive  from  America  is  discouraging.  In  all 
your  large  cities  we  see  mobs  after  mobs,  and 
all  directed  to  an  odious  purpose.  When  we 
speak  of  liberty,  its  enemies  reply  to  us  by 
pointing  to  America"  The  persecuted  Aboli 
tionists  have  the  sympathies  of  the  civilized 
world.  The  country  which  persecutes  them  is 
covering  itself  with  disgrace,  and  filling  the 
hearts  of  the  friends  of  freedom  with  fear  and 
gloom.  Already  despotism  is  beginning  to 
rejoice  in  the  fulfilment  of  its  prophecies,  in 
our  prostrated  laws  and  dying  liberties.  Liberty 


168  ABOLITIONISM. 

is,  indeed,  threatened  with  death  in  a  country, 
where  any  class  of  men  are  stripped  with  im 
punity  of  their  constitutional  rights.  All  rights 
feel  the  blow.  A  community,  giving  up  any 
of  its  citizens  to  oppression  and  violence,  is 
preparing  for  itself  the  same  fate.  It  invites 
chains  for  itself,  in  suffering  them  to  be  imposed 
on  any  whom  it  is  bound  to  protect. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


DUTIES. 

A  FEW  words  remain  to  be  spoken  in  relation 
to  the  duties  of  the  Free  States.  These  need 
to  feel  the  responsibilities  and  dangers  of  their 
present  position.  The  country  is  approaching 
a  crisis  on  the  greatest  question  which  can  be 
proposed  to  it,  a  question  not  of  profit  or  loss, 
of  tariffs  or  banks,  or  any  temporary  interests, 
but  a  question  involving  the  First  Principles 
of  freedom,  morals,  and  religion.  Yet  who 
seems  to  be  awake  to  the  solemnity  of  the  pres 
ent  moment?  Who  seems  to  be  settling  for 
himself  the  great  fundamental  truths,  by  which 
private  eiForts  and  public  measures  are  to  be 
determined  ? 

The  North  has  duties  to  perform  towards 
the  South  and  towards  itself.  Let  it  resolve  to 
perform  them  faithfully,  impartially;  asking 
first  for  the  Right,  and  putting  entire  confidence 
in  Well-doing.  The  North  is  bound  to  frown 
on  all  attempts  of  its  citizens,  should  such  be 


170  DUTIES. 

threatened,  to  excite  insurrection  at  the  South, 
on  all  attempts  to  tamper  with  and  to  dispose 
to  violence  the  minds  of  the  slaves.  The 
severest  laws,  which  the  Constitutions  of  the 
different  States  admit,  may  justly  be  resorted 
to  for  this  end,  and  they  should  be  strictly 
enforced.  I  believe,  indeed,  that  there  is  no 
special  need  for  new  legislation  on  the  subject. 
I  believe  that  there  was  never  a  moment,  when 
the  Slave-holding  States  had  so  little  to  appre 
hend  from  the  Free,  when  the  moral  feeling 
of  the  community  in  regard  to  the  crime  of  in 
stigating  revolt  was  so  universal,  thorough,  and 
inflexible,  as  at  the  present  moment.  Still,  if 
the  South  needs  other  demonstrations  than  it 
now  has  of  the  moral  and  friendly  spirit  which 
in  this  respect  pervades  the  North,  let  them  be 
given  to  the  full  extent  which  the  spirit  and 
provisions  of  our  respective  Constitutions  allow. 
Still  more ;  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Free  States  to 
act  by  opinion,  where  they  cannot  act  by  law, 
to  discountenance  a  system  of  agitation  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  to  frown  on  passionate 
appeals  to  the  ignorant,  and  on  indiscriminate 
and  inflammatory  vituperation  of  the  slave 
holder.  This  obligation,  also,  has  been  and 
will  be  fulfilled.  There  was  never  a  stronger 
feeling  of  responsibility  in  this  particular  than 
at  the  present  moment. 
There  are,  however,  other  duties  of  the  Free 


DUTIES.  171 

States,  to  which  they  may  prove  false,  and 
which  they  are  too  willing  to  forget.  They 
are  bound,  not  in  their  public,  but  individual 
capacities,  to  use  every  virtuous  influence  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery.  They  are  bound  to 
encourage  that  manly,  moral,  religious  discus 
sion  of  it,  through  which  strength  will  be  given 
to  the  continually  increasing  opinion  of  the 
civilized  and  Christian  world  in  favor  of  per 
sonal  freedom.  They  are  bound  to  seek  and 
hold  the  truth  in  regard  to  human  rights,  to  be 
faithful  to  their  principles  in  conversation  and 
conduct,  never,  never  to  surrender  them  to 
private  interest,  convenience,  flattery,  or  fear. 

The  duty  of  being  true  to  our  principles  is 
not  easily  to  be  performed.  At  this  moment 
an  immense  pressure  is  driving  the  North  from 
its  true  ground.  God  save  it  from  imbecility, 
from  treachery  to  freedom  and  virtue  !  I  have 
certainly  no  feelings  but  those  of  good- will  to 
wards  the  South ;  but  I  speak  the  universal  sen 
timent  of  this  part  of  the  country,  when  I  say, 
that  the  tone  which  the  South  has  often  as 
sumed  towards  the  North  has  been  that  of  a 
superior,  a  tone  unconsciously  borrowed  from 
the  habit  of  command  to  which  it  is  unhappily 
accustomed  by  the  form  of  its  society.  I  must 
add,  that  this  high  bearing  of  the  South  has 
not  always  been  met  by  a  just  consciousness 
of  equality,  a  just  self-respect  at  the  North. 


172  DUTIES. 

The  causes  I  will  not  try  to  explain.  The 
effect,  I  fear,  is  not  to  be  denied.  It  is  said, 
that  some,  who  have  represented  the  North  in 
Congress,  have  not  always  represented  its 
dignity,  its  honor ;  that  they  have  not  always 
stood  erect  before  the  lofty  bearing  of  the  South. 
Here  lies  our  danger.  The  North  will  un 
doubtedly  be  just  to  the  South.  It  must  also 
be  just  to  itself.  This  is  not  the  time  for  syco 
phancy,  for  servility,  for  compromise  of  prin 
ciple,  for  forgetfulness  of  our  rights.  It  is  the 
time  to  manifest  the  spirit  of  Men,  a  spirit 
which  prizes,  more  than  life,  the  principles  of 
liberty,  of  justice,  of  humanity,  of  pure  morals, 
of  pure  religion. 

Let  it  not  be  thought  that  I  would  recommend 
to  the  North,  what  in  some  parts  of  our  coun 
try  is  called  "  Chivalry,"  a  spirit  of  which  the 
duelling  pistol  is  the  best  emblem,  and  which 
settles  controversies  with  blood.  A  Christian 
and  civilized  man  cannot  but  be  struck  with 
the  approach  to  barbarism,  with  the  insensibility 
to  true  greatness,  with  the  incapacity  of  com 
prehending  the  divine  virtues  of  Jesus  Christ, 
which  mark  what  is  called  "chivalry."  I  ask 
not  the  man  of  the  North  to  borrow  it  from  any 
part  of  the  country.  But  I  do  ask  him  to 
stand  in  the  presence  of  this  "chivalry"  with 
the  dignity  of  moral  courage  and  moral  inde 
pendence.  Let  him,  at  the  same  moment,  re* 


DUTIES.  173 

member  the  courtesy  and  deference  due  to  the 
differing  opinions  of  others,  and  the  sincerity 
and  firmness  due  to  his  own.  Let  him  under 
stand  the  lofty  position  which  he  holds  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  never  descend  from  it 
for  the  purpose  of  soothing  prejudice  or  dis 
arming  passion.  Let  him  respect  the  safety 
of  the  South,  and  still  manifest  his  inflexible 
adherence  to  the  cause  of  human  rights  and 
personal  freedom. 

On  this  point  I  must  insist,  because  I  see  the 
North  giving  way  to  the  vehemence  of  the  South. 
In  some,  perhaps  many,  of  our  recent  "  Resolu 
tions,"  a  spirit  has  been  manifested,  at  which, 
if  not  we,  our  children  will  blush.  Not  long 
ago  there  were  rumors  that  some  of  our  citi 
zens  wished  to  suppress  by  law  all  discussion, 
all  expression  of  opinion  on  slavery,  and  to 
send  to  the  South  such  members  of  our  com 
munity  as  might  be  claimed  as  instigators  of 
insurrection.  Such  encroachments  on  rights 
could  not,  of  course,  be  endured.  We  are  not 
yet  so  fallen.  Some  generous  inspirations, 
some  echoes  of  the  old  eloquence  of  liberty, 
still  come  down  to  us  from  our  fathers.  Could 
such  encroachments  be  borne,  would  not  the 
soil  of  New  England,  so  long  trodden  by  free 
men,  quake  under  the  steps  of  her  degenerate 
sons?  We  are  not  prepared  for  these.  But 
a  weak,  yielding  tone,  for  which  we  seem  to  be 


174  DUTIES. 

prepared,  may  be  the  beginning  of  concessions 
which  we  shall  one  day  bitterly  rue. 

The  means  used  at  the  South  to  bririg  the 
North  to  compliance  seem  to  demand  particular 
attention.  I  will  not  record  the  contemptuous 
language  which  has  been  thrown  on  the  money- 
getting  habits  of  New  England,  or  the  menaces 
which  have  been  addressed  to  our  cupidity,  for 
the  purpose  of  putting  us  to  silence  on  the 
subject  of  slavery.  Such  language  does  in  no 
degree  move  me.  I  only  ask  that  we  may 
give  no  ground  for  its  application.  We  can 
easily  bear  it,  if  we  do  not  deserve  it.  Our 
mother-country  has  been  called  a  nation  of 
shopkeepers,  and  New  England  ought  not  to 
be  provoked  by  the  name.  Only  let  us  give 
no  sanction  to  the  opinion  that  our  spirit  is  nar 
rowed  to  onr  shops ;  that  we  place  the  art  of 
bargaining  above  all  arts,  all  sciences,  accom 
plishments,  and  virtues ;  that,  rather  than  lose 
the  fruits  of  the  slave's  labor,  we  would  rivet 
his  chains ;  that,  sooner  than  lose  a  market,  we 
would  make  shipwreck  of  honor ;  that,  sooner 
than  sacrifice  present  gain,  we  would  break 
our  faith  to  our  fathers  and  our  children,  to  our 
principles  and  our  God.  To  resent  or  retaliate 
reproaches  would  be  unwise  and  unchristian. 
The  only  revenge  worthy  of  a  good  man  is,  to 
turn  reproaches  into  admonitions  against  base 
ness,  into  incitements  to  a  more  generous  vir- 


DUTIES.  175 

tue.  New  England  has  long  suffered  the  im 
putation  of  a  sordid,  calculating  spirit,  of  su 
preme  devotion  to  gain.  Let  us  show  that  we 
have  principles,  compared  with  which  the 
wealth  of  the  world  is  light  as  air.  It  is  a 
common  remark  here,  that  there  is  not  a  com 
munity  under  heaven,  through  which  there  is 
so  general  a  diffusion  of  intelligence  and 
healthful  moral  sentiment  as  in  New  England. 
Let  not  the  just  influence  of  such  a  society  be 
impaired  by  any  act  which  would  give  to  pre 
judice  the  aspect  of  truth. 

The  Free  States,  it  is  to  be  feared,  must  pass 
through  a  struggle.  May  they  sustain  it  as 
becomes  their  freedom  !  The  present  excite 
ment  at  the  South  can  hardly  be  expected  to 
pass  away,  without  attempts  to  wrest  from 
them  unworthy  concessions.  The  tone  in  re 
gard  to  slavery  in  that  part  of  our  country  is 
changed.  It  is  not  only  more  vehement,  but 
more  false  than  formerly.  Once  slavery  was 
acknowledged  as  an  evil.  Now  it  is  proclaimed 
to  be  a  good.  We  have  even  been  told,  not  by 
a  handful  of  enthusiasts  in  private  life,  but  by 
men  in  the  highest  station  and  of  widest  influ 
ence  at  the  South,  that  slavery  is  the  soil  into 
which  political  freedom  strikes  its  deepest  roots, 
and  that  republican  institutions  are  never  so 
secure  as  when  the  laboring  class  is  reduced  to 
servitude.  Certainly,  no  assertion  of  the  wildest 


176  DUTIES. 

Abolitionist  could  give  such  a  shock  to  the 
slave-holder,  as  this  new  doctrine  is  fitted  to 
give  to  the  people  of  the  North.  Liberty, 
with  a  slave  for  her  pedestal  and  a  chain  in 
her  hand,  is  an  image,  from  which  our  un 
derstandings  and  hearts  alike  recoil.  A  doc 
trine,  more  wounding  or  insulting  to  the  me 
chanics,  farmers,  laborers  of  the  North  than 
this  strange  heresy,  cannot  well  be  conceived. 
A  doctrine  more  irreverent,  more  fatal  to  repub 
lican  institutions,  was  never  fabricated  in  the 
councils  of  despotism.  It  does  not,  however, 
provoke  us.  I  recall  it  only  to  show  the  spirit 
in  which  slavery  is  upheld,  and  to  remind  the 
Free  States  of  the  calm  energy  which  they  will 
need,  to  keep  themselves  true  to  their  own 
principles  of  liberty. 

There  is  a  great  dread  in  this  part  of  the 
country,  that  the  union  of  the  States  may  be 
dissolved  by  the  conflict  about  slavery.  To 
avert  this  evil,  every  sacrifice  should  be  made 
but  that  of  honor,  freedom,  and  principle.  No 
one  prizes  the  Union  more  than  myself.  Per 
haps  I  may  be  allowed  to  say,  that  I  am  at 
tached  to  it  by  no  common  love.  Most  men 
value  the  Union  as  a  Means ;  to  me  it  is  an 
End.  Most  would  preserve  it  for  the  prosperity 
of  which  it  is  the  instrument ;  I  love  and  would 
preserve  it  for  its  own  sake.  Some  value  it  as 
favoring  public  improvements,  facilities  of  com- 


DUTIES.  177 

mercial  exchange,  &c. ;  I  value  these  improve 
ments  and  exchanges  chiefly  as  favoring  union. 
I  ask  of  the  General  Government  to  unite  us, 
to  hold  us  together  as  brethren  in  peace ;  and 
I  care  little  whether  it  does  any  thing  else.  So 
dear  to  me  is  union.  Next  to  liberty,  it  is  our 
highest  national  interest.  All  the  pecuniary 
sacrifices  which  it  can  possibly  demand  should 
be  made  for  it.  The  politicians  in  some  parts 
of  our  country,  who  are  calculating  its  value, 
and  are  willing  to  surrender  it  because  they 
may  grow  richer  by  separation,  seem  to  me 
bereft  of  reason.  Still,  if  the  Union  can  be 
preserved  only  by  the  imposition  of  chains  on 
speech  and  the  press,  by  prohibition  of  discus 
sion  on  a  subject  involving  the  most  sacred 
rights  and  dearest  interests  of  humanity,  then 
union  would  be  bought  at  too  dear  a  rate ;  then 
it  would  be  changed  from  a  virtuous  bond  into 
a  league  of  crime  and  shame.  Language  can 
not  easily  do  justice  to  our  attachment  to  the 
Union.  We  will  yield  every  thing  to  it  but 
Truth,  Honor,  and  Liberty.  These  we  can 
never  yield. 

Let  the  Free  States  be  firm,  but  also  patient, 
forbearing,  and  calm.  From  the  slave-holder 
they  cannot  look  for  perfect  self-control.  From 
his  position  he  would  be  more  than  man,  were  he 
to  observe  the  bounds  of  moderation.  The 
consciousness  which  tranquillizes  the  mind  can 
12 


178  DUTIES. 

hardly  be  his.  On  this  subject  he  has  always 
been  sensitive  to  excess.  Much  exasperation  is 
to  be  expected.  Much  should  be  borne.  Every 
thing  may  be  surrendered  but  our  principles 
and  our  rights. 


The  work,  which  I  proposed  to  myself,  is 
now  completed.  I  ask  and  hope  for  it  the  Di 
vine  blessing,  as  far  as  it  expresses  Truth,  and 
breathes  the  spirit  of  Justice  and  Humanity. 
If  I  have  written  any  thing  under  the  influence 
of  prejudice,  passion,-,  or  unkindness  to  any  hu 
man  being,  I  ask  forgiveness  of  God  and  man. 
I  have  spoken  strongly,  not  to  offend  or  give 
pain,  but  to  produce  in  others  deep  convictions 
corresponding  to  my  own.  Nothing  could  have 
induced  me  to  fix  my  thoughts  on  this  painful 
subject,  but  a  conviction,  which  pressed  on  me 
with  increasing  weight,  that  the  times  demand 
ed  a  plain  and  free  exposition  of  the  truth.  The 
few  last  months  have  increased  my  solicitude 
for  the  country.  Public  sentiment  has  seemed 
to  me  to  be  losing  its  healthfulness  and  vigor. 
I  have  seen  symptoms  of  the  decline  of  the 
old  spirit  of  liberty.  Servile  opinions  have 
seemed  to  gain  ground  among  us.  The  faith 
of  our  fathers  in  free  institutions  has  waxed 
faint,  and  is  giving  place  to  despair  of  human 
improvement.  I  have  perceived  a  disposition 
to  deride  abstract  rights,  to  speak  of  freedom  as 


DUTIES.  179 

a  dream,  and  of  republican  governments  as 
built  on  sand.  I  have  perceived  a  faint-heart- 
edness  in  the  causQ  of  human  rights.  The  con 
demnation,  which  has  been  passed  on  Aboli 
tionists,  has  seemed  to  be  settling  into  acqui 
escence  in  slavery.  The  sympathies  of  the 
community  have  been  turned  from  the  slave  to 
the  master.  The  impious  doctrine,  that  human 
laws  can  repeal  the  Divine,  can  convert  unjust 
and  oppressive  power  into  a  moral  right,  has 
more  and  more  tinctured  the  style  of  conversa 
tion  and  the  press.  With  these  sad  and  solemn 
views  of  society,  I  could  not  be  silent ;  and  I 
thank  God,  amidst  the  consciousness  of  great 
weakness  and  imperfection,  that  I  have  been 
able  to  offer  this  humble  tribute,  this  sincere 
though  feeble  testimony,  this  expression  of 
heart-felt  allegiance,  to  the  cause  of  Freedom, 
Justice,  and  Humanity. 

Having  stated  the  circumstances  which  have 
moved  me  to  write,  I  ought  to  say,  that  they 
do  not  discourage  me.  Were  darker  omens  to 
gather  round  us,  I  should  not  despair.  With  a 
faith  like  his,  who  came  to  prepare  the  way  for 
the  Great  Deliverer,  I  feel  and  can  say,  "  The 
kingdom  of  Heaven,"  the  Reign  of  Justice  and 
Disinterested  Love,  "  is  at  hand,  and  All  Flesh 
shall  see  the  Salvation  of  God."  I  know,  and 
rejoice  to  know,  that  a  power,  mightier  than 
the  prejudices  and  oppression  of  ages,  is  work- 


180  DUTIES. 

ing  on  earth  for  the  world's  redemption,  the 
power  of  Christian  Truth  and  Goodness.  It 
descended  from  Heaven  in  the  person  of  Christ. 
It  was  manifest  in  his  life  and  death.  From 
his  cross  it  went  forth  conquering  and  to  con 
quer.  Its  mission  is  "to  preach  deliverance  to 
the  captive,  and  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bound."  It  has  opened  many  a  prison-door. 
It  is  ordained  to  break  every  chain.  I  have 
faith  in  its  triumphs.  I  do  not,  cannot  despair. 


NOTE. 

IT  was  my  purpose  to  address  a  chapter  to  the  South, 
but  I  have  thought  fit  to  omit  it.  I  beg,  however,  to 
say,  that  nothing  which  I  have  written  can  have  pro 
ceeded  from  unkind  feeling  towards  the  South ;  for  in 
no  other  part  of  the  country  have  my  writings  found  a 
more  gratifying  reception ;  from  no  other  part  have  I 
received  stronger  expressions  of  sympathy.  To  these 
I  am  certainly  not  insensible.  My  own  feelings,  had  I 
consulted  them,  would  have  led  me  to  stifle  every  ex 
pression,  which  could  give  pain  to  those  from  whom  I 
have  received  nothing  but  good-will. 

I  wished  to  suggest  to  the  slave-holders  that  the  ex 
citement  now  prevalent  among  themselves  is  incompa 
rably  more  perilous,  more  fitted  to  stir  up  insurrection, 
than  all  the  efforts  of  Abolitionists,  allowing  these  to  be 
ever  so  corrupt.  I  also  wished  to  remind  the  men  of 
principle  and  influence  in  that  part  of  the  country,  of  the 
necessity  of  laying  a  check  on  lawless  procedures,  in 
regard  to  the  citizens  of  the  North.  We  have  heard 
of  large  subscriptions  at  the  South  for  the  apprehension 
of  some  of  the  Abolitionists  in  the  Free  States,  and  for 
the  transportation  of  them  to  parts  of  the  country  where 
they  would  meet  the  fate,  which,  it  is  said,  they  deserve. 
Undoubtedly  the  respectable  portion  of  the  slave-holding 
communities  are  not  answerable  for  these  measures. 
But  does  not  policy,  as  well  as  principle,  require  such 


182  NOTE. 

men  steadily  to  discountenance  them?  At  present,  the 
Free  States  have  stronger  sympathies  with  the  South 
than  ever  before.  But  can  it  be  supposed  that  they 
will  suffer  their  citizens  to  be  stolen,  exposed  to  vio 
lence,  and  murdered  by  other  States?  "Would  not 
such  an  outrage  rouse  them  to  feel  and  act  as  one  man  ? 
Would  it  not  identify  the  Abolitionists  with  our  most 
sacred  rights?  One  kidnapped,  murdered  Abolitionist 
would  do  more  for  the  violent  destruction  of  slavery 
than  a  thousand  societies.  His  name  would  be  sainted. 
The  day  of  his  death  would  be  set  apart  for  solemn, 
heart-stirring  commemoration.  His  blood  would  cry 
through  the  land  with  a  thrilling  voice,  would  pierce 
every  dwelling,  and  find  a  response  in  every  heart.  Do 
men,  under  the  light  of  the  present  day,  need  to  be  told, 
that  enthusiasm  is  not  a  flame  to  be  quenched  with 
blood?  On  this  point,  good  and  wise  men,  and  the 
friends  of  the  country  at  the  North  and  South,  can  hold 
but  one  opinion ;  and  if  the  press,  which,  I  grieve  to  say, 
has  kept  an  ominous  silence  amidst  the  violations  of 
law  and  rights,  would  but  speak  plainly  and  strongly, 
the  danger  would  be  past. 

The  views  and  principles,  supported  in  this  short 
work,  will,  of  course,  provoke  much  opposition,  and,  what 
I  greatly  lament,  they  will  excite  the  displeasure  not 
only  of  the  selfish  and  violent,  but  of  good  and  honorable 
men,  whose  unfavorable  position  hardly  admits  an  im 
partial  judgment  of  slavery,  and  renders  them  exces 
sively  sensitive  to  every  exposition  of  it.  I  shall  not, 
however,  be  anxious  to  defend  what  I  have  written. 
The  principles,  here  laid  down,  if  true,  will  stand.  I 
should  anticipate  little  good  from  engaging  in  contro 
versies  with  individuals.  The  selfish  passions,  awakened 
by  such  collisions,  too  often  prevail  over  the  love  of 
truth ;  and  without  this,  the  truth  cannot  be  worthily 


NOTE  TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION.      183 

maintained.  In  regard  to  slavery,  it  is  peculiarly  im 
portant  that  discussion  should  be  calm,  general,  unmixed 
with  personalities.  In  this  way,  I  trust  that  the  subject 
will  be  better  understood  by  all  parties.  I  should  rejoice 
to  be  convinced,  that  slavery  is  a  less  debasing  influence 
than  I  have  affirmed.  How  welcome  would'  be  brighter 
views  of  life  and  of  mankind  !  Still,  we  must  see  things 
as  they  are,  and  not  turn  away  from  the  most  painful 
truth. 

I  have  only  to  add,  that  I  alone  am  responsible  for 
what  I  have  now  written.  I  represent  no  society,  no 
body  of  men,  no  part  of  the  country.  I  have  written  by 
no  one's  instigation,  and  with  no  one's  encouragement, 
but  solely  from  my  own  convictions.  If  cause  of  offence 
is  given,  the  blame  ought  to  fall  on  me  alone. 


NOTE   FOR  THE   FOURTH  EDITION. 

IN  commencing  the  chapter  on  Abolitionism,  I  have 
expressed  my  respect  for  the  few  Abolitionists  whom  I 
have  known.  I  am  bound  to  say,  that,  in  consequence 
of  hearing  and  seeing  more  of  this  body,  I  have  an  in 
creasing  persuasion  of  the  purity  of  purpose,  and  the 
moral  worth  of  its  members  generally.  I  have  spoken 
freely  of  their  errors  ;  but  these  ought  not  to  blind  us  to 
their  virtues  and  sacrifices,  and  especially  ought  not  to 
prejudice  us  against  the  truths  which  they  contend  for. 
We  must  not  abandon  great  principles,  because  asserted 
unwisely.  We  must  not  grow  cold  to  a  good  cause,  be 
cause  reproach  is  brought  on  it  by  defenders  who  have 
more  zeal  than  discretion.  Its  dangers  should  attach  us 
to  it  more  closely,  and  we  should  do  what  we  can  to 


184      NOTE  TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION. 

lead  its  friends  to  the  use  of  means  corresponding  to  its 
dignity,  and  fitted  to  ensure  its  success. 

In  the  chapter  on  the  Means  of  removing  Slavery,  I 
have  expressed  my  fears  as  to  the  result  of  the  experi 
ment  now  going  on  in  the  English  West-Indies.  I  re 
joice  to  say,  that  recent  accounts  from  those  islands  have 
diminished  my  apprehensions.  It  is  stated,  that  in  some 
of  the  islands  real  estate  has  risen  in  value  since  the 
emancipation,  and  that  imports  are  considerably  in 
creased.  I  have  just  heard,  that  a  West  Indian  planter 
residing  in  this  country,  who  was  strenuously  opposed 
to  the  act  of  Emancipation,  speaks  now  of  his  estate  as 
more  productive  than  formerly.  That  no  disturbance  of 
the  peace  has  followed  this  great  change,  is  well  under 
stood,  and  this  is  the  essential  point.  Undoubtedly  the 
experiment  is  not  yet  decided,  and  reports  are  to  be  re 
ceived  with  caution ;  but  the  success  of  the  measure  has 
as  yet  surpassed  the  expectations  of  all  except  the  Abo 
litionists.  As  yet  they  have  proved  the  truest  prophets. 
May  events  set  the  seal  of  truth  on  all  their  predictions ! 
This  country  is  interested  in  nothing  more  than  in  the 
success  of  emancipation  in  the  West  Indies.  With  this 
example  before  us,  the  destruction  of  slavery  would  be 
as  speedy  as  it  is  sure. 

No  part  of  my  book  on  Slavery  seems  to  have  given  so 
much  offence  as  that  in  which  I  have  spoken  of  conjugal 
infidelity  on  the  part  of  the  master  as  increased  by 
slavery.  Of  the  abuse  heaped  on  me  for  this  opinion  I 
shall,  of  course,  say  nothing.  Had  I  received  nothing  but 
abuse,  the  remarks  now  to  be  made  would  not  be  offer 
ed  to  the  public ;  but  a  gentleman  of  high  character,  Mr. 
Leigh  of  Virginia,  has  solemnly  protested  against  my 
statement  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  and  I  should 


NOTE  TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION.      185 

do  him  great  wrong  were  I  to  confound  him  with  the 
vulgar  politicians,  too  common  in  Congress  as  well  as 
out  of  it,  who  are  ready  to  say  any  thing  and  every  thing 
which  may  serve  their  cause.  Mr.  Leigh  expresses  his 
deliberate  conviction,  that  conjugal  fidelity  is  not  more 
respected  in  any  part  of  the  country  than  in  the  Slave- 
holding  States.  It  will  be  observed,  in  recurring  to  my 
book,  that  I  said  nothing  of  the  Slave-holding  States,  but 
of  slave  countries  generally,  and  that  I  argued  not  from 
reports  or  documents,  but  from  the  principles  of  human 
nature  and  from  the  very  nature  of  slavery.  I  feel  as  if 
such  reasoning  could  not  deceive  me ;  but  I  will  now 
say,  what  I  forbore  to  say  in  the  first  instance,  that  I 
should  not  have  brought  this  charge  against  slavery,  had 
not  the  general  argument,  drawn  from  human  nature, 
been  corroborated  by  all  the  evidence  which  the  case 
will  well  admit.  In  that  part  of  my  work,  I  expressed 
not  my  own  opinion  alone,  but  the  common,  and  per 
haps  I  should  say  the  universal  opinion  of  the  North,  and, 
still  more,  the  public  opinion  of  the  civilized  world .  Dur 
ing  my  whole  life,  I  have  not  met  an  individual,  who  has 
questioned,  whether  slavery  exerts  a  disastrous  influence 
on  the  domestic  relations.  I  do  not  believe,  that,  among 
the  well  informed  at  the  North,  an  individual  is  to  be  found, 
who  supposes  that  the  obligations  of  marriage  are  as  much 
respected  in  the  Slave-holding  States  as  in  the  Free.  On 
reading  Mr.  Leigh's  speech,  I  determined  to  make  inqui 
ries,  with  the  purpose  of  retracting  my  error  in  the  face  of 
the  world,  if  I  should  find  reason  to  charge  myself  with 
rashness.  I  have  obtained  the  opinions  of  those,  whose 
authority  in  such  a  case  seems  to  me  most  worthy  of 
confidence,  and  in  every  instance  I  have  been  assured  that 
I  have  uttered  only  the  truth.  I  know  not  how  many 
have  spoken  to  me  on  this  point  in  the  most  undoubting 
tone.  In  my  book,  I  have  only  given  expression  to  the 


186      NOTE  TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION. 

public  sentiment  of  the  North,  and  I  as  little  expected  to 
hear  my  correctness  questioned,  as  to  hear  the  existence 
of  slavery  denied.  I  do  not,  of  course,  intend  to  impute  the 
least  unfairness  to  Mr.  Leigh,  who  is  known  among  us 
only  as  a  virtuous  man,  who  does  honor  to  his  country.  I 
presume,  that,  in  the  comparison  which  he  made  between 
the  Slave-holding  States  and  other  parts  of  the  country, 
he  spoke  without  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  latter.  I 
cannot,  therefore,  I  dare  not  expunge  from  my  book  the 
offensive  passage,  though  in  the  revised  edition  I  have 
somewhat  changed  its  form.  If  I  know  my  own  heart, 
I  should  rejoice  to  be  able  to  expunge  it. 

I  have  regretted,  that  a  passage,  which  I  prepared  for 
this  work  at  the  time  of  its  composition,  was  not  insert 
ed.  In  the  chapter  of  Explanations,  after  speaking  of 
the  examples  of  moral  and  religious  excellence  to  be 
found  in  the  Slave-holding  States,  I  expressed,  in  a  few 
sentences,  my  deep  sense  of  the  virtues,  as  well  as  the 
accomplishments  of  the  wo"men  of  the  South.  I  wrote 
this  passage  with  a  fervent  heart,  because  it  was  dictated, 
in  a  measure,  by  the  grateful  recollection  of  unwearied 
kindnesses  received  from  woman  during  a  residence  in 
that  part  of  the  country  in  my  youth.  I  should  be  glad 
to  publish  it  now,  had  it  not  been  destroyed  with  the 
manuscript  of  which  it  formed  a  part,  for  it  expressed 
feelings  which  time  has  only  strengthened.  After  much 
deliberation  I  omitted  it  in  the  first  edition,  and  did  so 
from  considerations  which  I  cannot  now  approve.  I 
feared  that  what  I  had  written  would  be  set  down  by 
strangers  as  a  common-place  of  flattery.  I  feared  that  I 
might  seem  desirous  to  expiate  by  this  praise  the  censures 
contained  in  other  parts  of  the  book,  desirous  to  shield 
myself  from  the  obloquy  to  which  I  was  exposing  my 
self  in  publishing  unpopular  truth.  I  did  on  this  occa 
sion  what  I  have  too  often  done.  In  shrinking  from  the 


NOTE  TO  THE  FOURTH  EDITION.      187 

appearance  of  vices  which  I  abhor,  I  was  unjust  to  my 
convictions  and  affections.  The  reader  will  excuse  this 
reference  to  myself,  when  he  learns  that  I  have  been 
shamelessly  accused  of  casting  reproach  on  the  purity  of 
the  women  at  the  South.  I  should  not,  however,  have 
noticed  this  calumny,  had  not  the  preceding  part  of  this 
note  almost  compelled  me  to  refer  to  it.  I  feel  too  much 
about  the  great  subject  on  which  I  have  written,  to  be 
very  solicitous  about  what  is  said  of  myself.  I  feel  that  I 
am  nothing,  that,  my  reputation  is  nothing,  in  compari 
son  with  the  fearful  wrong  and  evil,  which  I  have  labored 
to  expose  ;  and  I  should  count  myself  unworthy  the  name 
of  a  man  or  a  Christian,  if  the  calumnies  of  the  bad,  or 
even  the  disapprobation  of  the  good,  could  fasten  my 
thoughts  on  myself  and  turn  me  aside  from  a  cause, 
which,  as  I  believe,  truth,  humanity,  and  God  call  me  to 
maintain. 


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